Long Way Home
by Tastychainsaws
Summary: Yui has always had a knack for getting into trouble. Now through a series of various antics, mistakes, silliness, and adventures; Yui has gotten Azusa and her into the most trouble yet. Friendship will be tested as they find their way home. YuixAzusa
1. We Love Ui!

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 1- WE LOVE UI**

Greeting beloved reader. Time for a little story. I realized, I make a lot of K-On! References in my other fics. So I decided to go all out and do a full fic for K-On! So bear with me, and I hope you enjoy it. Oh yeah, tell me what you like about it and what I need to do better as I go along! Make sure I don't screw this up.

**A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER...**

"_Working Man!_" Ritsu adamantly said, and stomped her foot to emphasize her point.

"_Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_!" Mio argued back.

"_Rush_!" Ritsu growled.

"_The Beatles_!" Mio snarled.

"Neil Pert!" Ritsu stomped her foot.

"John Lennon!" Mio shouted and put her hands at her hips.

Then it was Sawako, their club adviser, who interjected. "Neither."

"But we all agreed on a cover in our next line up." Mio, the band's bassist, turned and replied. "I want to do a _Beatles _song."

"I'd rather be Neil Pert than Ringo..." Ritsu scoffed. "...or maybe Keith Moon or Danny Carey."

"What about Lars Ulrich?" Tsumugi, the bands resident keyboardist, suggested.

Ritsu shot her a look to kill, "Mugi-chan, don't even joke about things like that. Anyways, yeah let's do _Rush_! I bet Sawa-chan is on my side."

"I am most certainly not on anyone's side." Sawako huffed and stuck her nose up. "Neil Pert is overrated anyway."

Ritsu growled then collapsed on the Light Music Club room's couch next to Tsumugi. The keyboardist just sat there and smiled. She then decided to speak up and try to end the argument. "How about a cover of a _Who _song? I know that Ricchan like the band, and they have keyboard solo's. What do you think Sawa-chan?"

"I think you should do a cover from the band _Rotting Christ_." Sawako smiled, her eyes gleamed wickedly causing the Light Music Club to all back away a little in fear.

"That sounds...risky..." Mio meekly replied. Sawako laughed softly then put on a nicer face.

"I was just trying to help. What do you have against Greek folk metal bands?" She pouted. At that moment, the door flung open and the guitarist for their band, Yui Hirasawa, ran in while dragging Azusa Nakano, the secondary guitarist, behind her.

"Sorry we're late!" An exhausted Yui stammered and set her precious guitar down next Mio's bass. "You'll never believe what happened to us!"

"Yui-senpai locked herself in the washroom on the ground floor." Azusa instantly clarified for the rest of the band.

"It was sabotage, Ricchan!" Yui declared and crossed her arms. "Sabotage I say!"

"Actually the door stopper was down, by the time I got it up Yui had escaped out the window." Azusa went on, casually shaking her head in disappointment. "After that I had to chase Yui-senpai down, but after I caught up to her she pinned me on the ground and tickled me for ten minutes."

The rest of them eyed Yui angrily. Yui just smiled widely, exposing her bright white teeth and waved at them.

"Come have some tea, that'll cheer you up." Tsumugi said to Azusa and led her to the other side of the room where their table was. "I didn't bring any snacks today, I hope that's okay."

"It's fine." Azusa smiled and gladly accepted the tea. It was peach and Tsumugi had added half a spoon of sugar and a bit of honey. It was mild, but simply divine. The younger guitarist let her worries melt away as she slowly sipped away at the tea. The senior guitarist, Yui, frustrated Azusa to no end, but she found herself unable to harbor any grudge towards her. When she looked at Yui's simple innocence and care free life style, she couldn't help but smile.

"_Rush_!" Ritsu argued again.

"_Beatles_!" Mio snapped back.

"_Rotting Christ_!" Sawako threw her vote in. Azusa sighed at the arguing between her seniors. But she had to smile as Yui put her suggestion in.

"How about all three...at the same time!" Yui cried out, "Ricchan will play her song, then Mio-chan will play the song at the same time. Then I'll play Sawa-chan's song for her, and we can take turns singing the lyrics."

"No!" The other three shouted in unison. Still Azusa had to smile at Yui's simpleness. Even if her suggestions were never taken, they certainly were genius in her own way. Only she could look at a situation and come out with a completely different outlook than another group of people. That, Azusa believed, was a gift on its own.

"Keep trying, Yui-senpai." She whispered and finished the last of her tea.

"What was that?" Tsumugi asked, then poured a cup of her own.

"Er, nothing." Azusa stuttered and blushed.

**THAT NIGHT...**

"Onee-chan, dinner's ready!" Ui Hirasawa, Yui's younger sister, called from the kitchen. Yui was happily sprawled across the living room floor with her beloved Giita in hand. Her fingers gracefully played across the higher frets with her pick working in perfect harmony with it. It was a simple arpeggio, but it made her feel more like a rock star. Her mind was a one track road when she played guitar, all Yui could think was, _12 13 15, 12 13 15, 12 14 15, 12 14 15, _as her fingers played across the corresponding frets.

"Onee-chan, I said dinner is ready!" Ui called again. Yui briefly stopped playing than made an attempt to sit up. It felt short though.

"I don't wanna get up..." She groaned then collapsed again.

"If you don't come get food then I'll give it to Giita." Ui smiled and threatened. Before she could react, Yui was standing there with a plate in hand.

"Ui, you know that Giita can't have spicy food." Yui said in an extremely maternal tone, she then lowered her voice to a whisper, "He'll get the diarrhea!"

"That's..." Ui stuttered and tried to think of a way to reply to that. "Well, eat up Onee-chan. I have good news after dinner!"

"Seconds!" Yui commanded and raised her now empty plate Ui's face. All that was left on it were bits of crumbs and sauce. She had eaten about a pound of food in under four seconds, both science and physics wept at that. Her metabolism rivaled that of the author writing this fanfiction, the guy who likes to break the fourth wall.

"Go right ahead..." Ui said in utter disbelief. She made a plate of food for her self then proceeded to sit at the living room table.

"Ui, can we get the kotatsu out tonight?" Yui asked while shoveling more food down the bottomless abyss that was her stomach with chopsticks.

"But it's April, and warm out." Ui pointed out.

"I know, but I was reading a manga that had one, and now I want ours out." Yui chuckled, in hindsight it wasn't a great idea. "Oh, Ui, what was the good news you had?"

"Oh, right!" Ui suddenly remembered. She stood up then jogged to her room to retrieve something. Yui sat there twitching in excitement, this didn't stop her from stealing some of her sisters sukiyaki. Ui returned after a moment with three envelopes, she promptly handed one to her sister. Yui took it and shook it next to her head.

"What is it!" Yui nearly tackled her sister and asked.

Ui manage to shrug her sister off and explain, "I entered a lottery a few weeks ago and ended up winning. So I decided to share my prize with you and someone else!"

A smile formed across Yui's face and her eyes began to water up with tears of joy. "I love you Ui!" She squealed and tackled her sister into a hug.

Ui laughed and managed to fend off Yui's furious kissing of her cheeks. "But Onee-chan, aren't you going to ask what we won?"

Yui stopped her onslaught of affection right away. "Can I open the envelope?"

Ui nodded. That was incentive for Yui to furiously tear open the envelope and let its contents fall on the table. A ticket of some kind, and three 10,000 yen notes. Further inspection revealed that the ticket was for one Aya Hirano concert, an artist both of the sisters liked. The ticket was dated for the 27th of May in Tokyo. Almost exactly a month away. The money was to be used for any traveling expenses, food while staying in Tokyo, and any programs at the concert.

"Ui..." Yui squeaked, tears were forming at her eyes again. "I love you!"

So began the onslaught of affection once more. Then a random thought popped into Yui's mind, "Who gets the other ticket and 30,000 yen?" That let her mind wander...

_"Give it to me Yui-chan!" Ritsu demanded, "Or I'll melt you with my forehead beam!"_

_ "If you give it to me and I'll let you eat as many as my eyebrows as you want!" Tsumugi offered. She raised a bowl of rice with several of them adorned on top to punctuate her point._

_ "I'll burn your house down and take it." Mio threatened._

_ The Azusa of Yui's mental image was dressed like a cat. She was laying on her back playing with a ball of yarn. _

"Onee-chan..." Ui said again, her sister was lost in a day dream.

"Uh, what, where, why!" Yui gasped and quickly looked around the room.

"Why don't I go to the club room with you tomorrow and we can all discuss who should go with us." Ui suggested.

Yui thought for a moment then agreed.

**THE NEXT DAY**

"So only one of you can go?" Sawako confirmed, then stroked her chin with a look of deep concentration on her thought. "One of you including me, of course."

"What do you mean 'one of us including you, of course'?" Ritsu snapped at the teacher. "Who decided you automatically get to go with us!"

"Because you need someone to drive you there." The teacher explained, "It all works out since I was going to a concert in Tokyo that day too."

"Wow, what a coincidence!" Yui gasped. "Are you going to see Aya Hirano too?"

Sawako chuckled at that, "Oh no, I'm going to see a western band that's touring here. But I'll drive the three of you up there. Speaking of which, we need to decide who's going with the two of you."

"Count me out." Mio said and raised her hand. "I have plans the weekend after that Friday."

Ritsu was up on her in an instant, "What is it! Is it a boy?"

"Why would I schedule a date a month ahead of time!" Mio yelled and smacked Ritsu on the forehead. "If you must know, I have to go to my cousin's wedding."

"A wedding? That's sounds wonderful." Tsumugi sighed, her eyes were sparkling with various fantasies. Only Azusa noticed that she was eying Sawako.

"So that only leaves me, Mugi-chan, and Azu-nyan left." Ritsu thought aloud and sat back in her seat. "We should have a competition to see who gets to go! A game of _Killzone 2 _will determine the winner!"

"Don't pick a game only you're good at!" Mio scolded. "And don't turn this into a competition, or try to buy them out either. Yui and Ui should decide on their own _without _any outside influence."

"Outside influence, who me?" Ritsu said with the most innocent looking face she could muster.

"What do you think we should do, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked the younger guitarist.

Azusa shrugged, "I think Ritsu or Tsumugi-senpai should go. They've been in the club longer that I have."

Much to Azusa's surprise, Yui ran over and hugged her, smushing their faces close together. "Azu-nyan's so modest! It's so cute!"

Azusa had learned not to resist, resistance only made Yui hug you harder. "Shouldn't Ui-san decide since she is the one who won the tickets?"

"Right." Mio agreed. "I've heard things about her concerts too, I hope you guys have fun."

"I like her voice acting more than her singing." Ritsu added. "If I go, I'll try to get my Haruhi manga signed."

"If you go, get her to sign my _Endless Eight _box set." Mio asked Ritsu. The entire room went silent and everyone glared at Mio menacingly. "Did I say something weird?"

Ritsu leaned in towards Mio and bared her teeth, "Mio, we don't _ever _talk about _Endless Eight_. It _didn't _happen."

"What do you mean it didn't happen? I thought it was pretty-" Mio tried to say.

"It didn't happen." Yui, Ritsu, and Tsumugi said in unison.

"Not you too, Tsumugi!" Mio groaned.

"Mugi-chan is on our side!" Ritsu triumphantly declared.

"With her help we will rule Ferelden!" Yui cheered.

"Ferelden!" Ritsu joined along.

"Fere- Wait, I don't know what that is." Tsumugi began, and ultimately stopped.

"Back to the subject at hand..." Azusa interjected. "I think Ui and Yui-senpai should talk it over between themselves and figure out who most deserves to go."

Yui looked at Ritsu and briefly remembered the various times that the drummer had beaten, insulted, and choked her. Then she looked at Tsumugi and thought of all the times she had brought her tea, snacks, and haggled guitar places. The odds were in Tsumugi's favor.

"Would you like some more tea, Yui-sama?" Tsumugi asked and took Yui's empty cup. "How about some cake for you Ui-sama?"

"Sama?" Ritsu said and raised and eyebrow.

"Hey Yui-chan, and Ui-chan!" Ritsu yelled out and waved her arms to their attention. "Want to come to the mall later and buy whatever you want with _my _money?"

"You two are ridiculous." Mio sighed and shook her head. "My respect for Azusa-san is raising by the second and she isn't even doing anything."

"She is _too _doing something, she's feeding Ton-chan." Yui corrected.

"I didn't think Yui would remember so I went ahead and fed her." Azusa answered back.

"How dare you think so lowly of me!" Yui said with mock anger.

"Oh, so you were going to feed her?"

"No..."

**BETWEEN YUI AND UI**

"Who do you think we should bring with us, Ui?" The older Hirasawa sister asked as they walked home together.

"Hm, I had an idea. But Tsumugi-senpai is so nice, I would feel bad if I didn't include her." Ui sorrowfully answered.

"Yeah, Ricchan is probably the best choice. She seems like the type who would legitimately try to kill me if we didn't invite her." Yui replied and stroked her chin.

"I wasn't talking about Ritsu." Ui explained.

"But Mio-chan said she can't go." Yui said, perplexed by her sister's reasoning.

"Not Mio either..."

Yui stared at her sister for a moment before her brain finally put the pieces together, "Azu-nyan, that's a great idea! She's the only one we're both really friends with, because you don't know the rest of the Light Music Club that well."

"That was my logic." Ui nodded, "Plus it's her last year with you, I thought this would be something the special the two of you could do together."

"You too." Yui smiled and wrapped her arm around her sisters shoulder. "It'll be something special the three of us can do. And Sawa-chan..."

"And Sawa-chan..." Ui sighed. Something about that idea didn't sit well with her.

**THE VERDICT...**

"_I'll kill you, you ungrateful bastard!_" Ritsu shrieked and lunged across the Light Music Club room table, her fingers reaching for Yui's throat. Yui screamed and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Help, we've waken the demon in Ricchan!" Yui screamed and shuffled backwards until she was up against the wall. Mio wrapped her arms around Ritsu's waste and pulled the drummer back.

"With behavior like that, it's no wonder they didn't choose you to come along." Mio scolded. Ritsu was still growling and trying to wiggle out of the bassist's grip. Tsumugi didn't seem the least bit affected by not being chosen. She sat contently and watched Ritsu accidentally pull Mio's shirt up with her thrashing, briefly exposing her bare belly. Tsumugi smiled, knowing that all was well across the land.

Azusa barely managed to speak over the noise Ritsu was creating. "T-thank you, you two. I'm honored you chose me out of everyone. I'll do my best to make this a pleasant and happy trip of you all."

Yui saw Azusa's blushing face, nervous grip at the hem of her skirt, and the overall cuteness that was radiating off of her. Yui couldn't hold it in, and pounced, "Azu-nyan's so _cute_!"

The merriment was short lived. "Ritsu got free!" Mio warned them.

Tsumugi, with a placid smile on her face, watched Ritsu spring at Yui. The drummer pinned the guitarist and unleash a fury like a death metal drummer on crack.

"She's biting me!" Yui screamed and tried to get away. "Quick, Azu-nyan, find me a red and green herb!"

Tsumugi, with that same placid smile, watched the events unfold in front of her. Yui's shoe flew across the room and landed next to Tsumugi, who was lost in her own world. Her thoughts more or less like this...

_"Sometimes, I like to pretend my bass, Elizabeth, is my beard." Mio told the rest of the Light Music Club as she stood on a stage in front of them. "And then I like to play it, so it feels like I'm playing my beard instead. If I were a dog then I could grow beards all over."_

In reality, Mio was crossing the room to drown out the war going on between Ritsu and Yui by playing her bass.

"And so it was that Mio brought peace to the land by playing her beard..." Tsumugi smiled. Azusa shot her a curious look, then decided to go help Yui. Ritsu had pulled off her shirt and was using it to strangle the guitarist. Tsumugi was okay with that.

**ONWARD TO TOKYO!**

Tastychainsaws here. First off, those bands I mentioned earlier ARE popular in Japan. Just want to clarify that. Can't say the same for _Rotting Christ_, I just added them because they're extreme black metal and it seemed to fit Sawako.

I hope you guys liked this first chapter. It was heavy on the dialogue I know, but that's what K-On is right? Anyways, I hope you'll read the next chapter and the ones after that! Expect more silliness and crazy antics as Yui drags into Azusa into a very "interesting" situation.

May or may not be any pairings. For now, don't count on it.

Oh yeah, standard rights belong to all the references I made. _K-On_(of course), _Rush_, _The Beatles_, _The Who_, _Tool_(I mentioned their drummer), _Metallica_(drummer also mentioned), _Rotting Christ_, _Killzone 2_, _Dragon Age: Origins_, _Resident Evil_ and _The Devil Wears Prada_. So yeah, I don't own the rights to any of those.


	2. Vacation and Redemption

**LONG WAY HOME, CHAPTER 2- REDEMTION AND VACATION**

I'd like to thank each and everyone of you for the reviews. This was much better received that I had imagined it would be. I realize that the first chapter did indeed have its flaws, but I'm going to try and prevent them from happening again. I have to remind myself that this ISN'T a crackfic, like so many of my others...or just two. ANYWAYS, yeah less senseless violence and Tsumugi acting like she's on LSD. In other words, instead of creating unrealistic responses in normal situations; I want to create realistic responses in less realistic, or exaggerated situations. Or at the very most, have silly, yet still believable, behavior end them in funny scenarios. This happens in this chapter multiple times.

The fluff will continue until morale improves.

**MAKING UP**

"Ritsu, there's something you'd like to say to Yui, right?" Mio said with crossed arms, she was standing between the two of them.

"I'm sorry I jumped across the table and tried to strangle you..." Ritsu sighed, the two of them were sitting on chairs facing each other with Mio in between, mediating.

"It's okay, Ricchan, you didn't really hurt me." Yui smiled and replied.

"Well, no harm done, right?" The drummer said and tried to stand up. Mio placed a hand on her shoulder and forced her back into a sitting position.

"Not so fast, finish the apology." Mio scolded with a shake of her head. Ritsu sighed and continued.

"I'm sorry I bit your right leg too..." She sighed and avoided eye contact with Yui. The guitarist just smiled.

"It's okay, you didn't really...okay that hurt, but it didn't leave any marks or anything." Yui sweat dropped and scratched the back of her head. Ritsu tried to stand up again, but Mio's glare stopped her.

"I'm also sorry I ripped your shirt off then tried to, unsuccessfully I may add, try to asphyxiate you with it." Ritsu sighed.

"It's a good thing it was unsuccessful, huh?" Yui said, trying desperately to break the tension that had been created. To her, it seemed that Ritsu was not used to owning up to her actions in this way. Or at least be punished in such a manner; it was clear to everyone that she would have preferred a close fisted punch by Mio than this.

"And because Mio isn't going to let me get up until I finish..." Ritsu grumbled and sent an unhappy glare at the bassist, "...lastly, I'm sorry for pummeling your bare tummy with drumsticks for several minutes until it was red."

Yui blinked, as if she had repressed that memory, "It's okay, I...I...Okay, I don't forgive for that one. Drumsticks really hurt." She stuck her nose up with an aura of displeasure.

"Oh _come on_!" Ritsu blurted out, "I sat here and apologized, what more do you want!"

Yui thought about that for a moment, her finger stroked her chin and a smile formed across her lips. "Well there is something you could do that would make me forgive you."

"Just thinking out loud here, what would happen if I didn't earn your forgiveness?" Ritsu retorted with a sly grin.

It was Tsumugi that replied, much to every ones surprise, "I can't make tea for a band that won't get along!" Her tone was happy and conversational. Ritsu went to say something witty for a reply, but realized it was better to hold her tongue for the moment. After a moment of thinking, it was better to give into Yui's wishes. _After all, what was the worse that the little airhead could want? _Ritsu thought with an air of arrogance.

On the other end of the room, much less exciting events were unfolding...

"Tsumugi-senpai, are you ambidextrous?" Azusa asked the keyboardist, seemingly at random.

"I...I don't think so, why?" Tsumugi replied.

"I noticed you seem to play the notes in the bass clef just as easily as the ones in the treble clef at the same time." Azusa explained. "Other keyboardists I've talked to in the Jazz Club say that they have a lot trouble keeping up with their left hands."

Tsumugi thought for a moment before replying, "I actually have a trick that helps me. Would you like to hear it?"

"I'd love to!" Azusa exclaimed, eager to absorb some musical knowledge from her senior.

"First off, are you familiar with the guitar technique _sweep picking_?" Tsumugi asked.

"I've seen it done at a few shows," Azusa shrugged, "I tried to learn it once, but it's very difficult."

"Well I do something similar to that by-" Tsumugi was muted by a much louder, much more dominating noise across the room.

"Onwards into the sunset, Ricchan my trusty steed!" Yui cheered, Azusa and Tsumugi turned their heads to see what was going on now. Ritsu and Yui sure had been acting strange that day... Anyways, Yui was sitting on Ritsu's shoulders. The drummer was stumbling around with her hands on Yui's thighs. Desperately trying to keep from falling.

"...Thighs...crushing...shoulders..." Ritsu grunted and nearly avoided falling. "...forgiven...yet?"

Yui thought for a moment, Ritsu's knees were shaking under her weight. Having all her body weigh straight on Ritsu's shoulders certainly was not doing the poor drummer and good. "Almost...I know, turn around and carry me that way!"

Azusa exhaled then turned back to her much more sane, blonde senior. "So you're saying if I take that sweep picking technique and mix it with tapping then I can-"

She was cut off by Yui and Ritsu once again, this time they were no longer in the room. This did little to hinder the noise they were creating.

"Ritsu those are the stares, stop!" Yui shouted from down the hall. This was enough to get Mio to stand up and go investigate. Azusa considered following suite, Tsumugi had already gone ahead.

"Yui, for the love of all things sweet and sugary, get off me _or we die now_!" Azusa heard Ritsu scream, that certainly was enough to convince her to go see just what they were doing now. When she stepped out into the outside, she saw an interesting sight.

Ritsu had stumbled, with Yui on her shoulders, towards the flight of treacherous stairs. Mio, stepping in as their savior, grabbed Ritsu's hand before the two of them stumbled downwards. Tsumugi was behind them, ready to catch them if they fell.

"I can understand that you're having fun," Azusa said and stood next to the rest of the band, "but this seems kind of dangerous."

With a graceful leap, Yui grabbed the banister of the stairs and hopped off of Ritsu. The drummer, suddenly relieved of the deadweight on her shoulders, fell backwards into Tsumugi's arms.

"Mugi-chan saves the day again..." Ritsu sighed and managed to stand on her own. She turned around and nodded at the keyboardist, "You have my thanks, dear proprietor in the arts of piano."

Tsumugi smiled and bowed, "I couldn't just let you fall. It would be rude for us to leave a mess like that for the janitor to clean up."

"We should celebrate Ritsu's safety, and our newly rekindled friendship with cake!" Yui shouted, she threw and arm around Ritsu's shoulder and the two of them proudly marched back into the club room like nothing had happened.

"Hold on a second, we've been here for nearly and hour and haven't practiced at all!" Azusa cried from behind them. "We should stop eating sweets and really get to work."

Yui stopped midway through the room and eyed the cake Tsumugi had laid out on the table. How she consistently brought these things was something no one in the Light Music Club knew, it was just a happy mystery. Yui's eyes glanced back at Gitah, who was sitting there unplayed.

_"Yui~ Yui~ Come and play me!_" Gitah sang softly, Yui took a step in that direction when the cake behind her spoke.

"_Don't you want some delicious cake? I am a Vanilla Crazy Cake and you must eat me._" The cake cooed. Yui had never tasted Vanilla Crazy Cake before, she realized that she _had _to have a slice or six.

"_But Yui, if you play me, you could be come the next Steve Vai and eat all the cake in the world._" Gitah spoke. Yui didn't know who Steve Vai was, but eating all the cake in the world sounded like a pretty great idea for her.

"What's she doing?" Mio asked, Yui was pacing back and forth with an extremely determined look on her face.

"Yui-senpai, you can eat cake after we practice." Azusa told her. Yui power walked over to Gitah and threw the strap over her shoulder. She raked the pick across the strings with her palm muting it, then played a Major C scale.

"Done!" She curtly said and went to put Gitah down.

"Yui-senpai..." Azusa groaned and gave her a incriminating look.

Yui sighed then positioned her hand near the bottom of the guitar's neck. With grace and agility none of them had ever seen before, Yui played a lightning fast arpeggio several times before jumping to another string and repeating it. The pick in her right hand was a blur as her fingers slowly ascended up the neck with speed never before seen in the young guitarist. Her left hand switched directions and descended down the neck before ending at the last few frets. She dropped the pick and used her index finger to tap the final two notes of an arpeggio, the speed was incredible. "There! I can has cake now?"

"Where did you learn _that_!" Azusa gasped, "I've never seen you play anything like that!"

"Internet." Yui shrugged. "Can I have some cake now?"

**GOLDEN WEEK**

Golden Week crept up with little warning, Yui hadn't even realized it was Golden Week until she managed to sleep into three in the afternoon without Ui waking her.

"You didn't wake me up..." Yui yawned and sat next to her sister on their green couch. A plate of sandwiches and tea was spread out on it. As if Ui knew when her sister was going to wake up.

"You looked so peaceful and happy in your sleep. I thought you would get mad if I woke you up." Ui answered and poured her sister a cup of tea.

"Thank you Ui!" Yui happily replied and took a sip of the tea, delicious as always. "Hm, I wonder what Ricchan and the others are doing today."

Ui just shrugged in reply. She was hoping to spend most of Golden Week with her sister, but part of her knew that was impossible. Yui wanted to spend time with her friends, that was okay with Ui for the most part. But it was still a bit lonely at times, especially when she was the only one home, and watching TV was the only thing to do to pass the time.

"I know, I'll call them!" Yui exclaimed and retrieved her cell phone from her pocket. Ui sighed at this, but this went unnoticed by perpetually pepped Yui.

"Ricchan, we should all get together this week!" Yui said into the phone, not even giving Ritsu a chance to say anything.

"_Maybe, I just happen to have three tickets to Disneyland in Tokyo this week. Me and Mio are going, and we need a third person_." Ritsu replied, of course Ui couldn't hear this. All Ui saw was Yui make a face that was holding in a squeal of happiness.

"_I wouldn't mind trading said ticket here for-_" Ritsu was cut off by Mio in the background.

"_Don't try to buy out Yui with those tickets! Azusa is going and that's the end of it. Besides your mother said that we had to take your brother along! I can't believe you would stoop so low!_"

Yui sat on the couch and just blinked several times. There was a high pitched yelp, then the phone cut off. Yui absentmindedly flipped the phone close and turned to Ui, "I think Ricchan just died. Want to see if Azusa can come in visit?"

"That sounds like a great idea!" Ui commended. Azusa was by far the most sane of the of Light Music Club. Mio seemed sane, but her short temper and multiple phobias tended to be a liability. Tsumugi was... interesting, Ui supposed. Sort of a wallflower and not much else.

**AZUSA...**

The twin-tailed guitarist was situated in her home, which as always was dismal looking with its poor lighting; even with the sun shining outside. Her guitar was sitting across her lap as she played the main riff for _Boston_'s _More Than A Feeling _over and over again. She had just figured it out after listening to it for a few times. The only thing that was causing her any sort of trouble was the palm muting at a certain point, but she was quickly overcoming that.

The TV was on in front of her with some show she had just had on for the heck of it. On screen a lilac haired girl was arguing with a blue haired girl about copying home work. This was at least the fourth time they had gone through the same argument. The results were more or less the same.

"If you know her number, just screen her calls." Azusa suggested to the fictional character who couldn't hear her. It reminded her of one of her mom's old friends, the one who they would always screen. At least she left some funny drunken messages. Speaking of phone calls, her cell phone vibrated in her pocket.

"Good afternoon, Azusa speaking."

"Azu-nyan!" Yui yelled so loud that Azusa had to pull the phone away from her ear.

"H-hello Yui-senpai." A still surprised Azusa meekly replied.

"Azu-nyan, you should come over we're having a party!" Yui told her, she was quickly followed by Ui in the background saying, "No we're not, Onee-chan don't tell lies like that."

"Sorry Ui, I thought that she'd want to come if I said we were throwing a party." Yui said, Azusa could perfectly imagine Yui's carefree smile as she said that to Ui.

"I don't mind if you're not having a party." Azusa said, smiling, "I'd be glad to come over."

**TSUMUGI**

The itch that caused Azusa to play her guitar moved on and affected the band's keyboardist as well. She made her way to one of the six keyboards she owned, and casually turned the power switch on. The lights and blue letters flickered to life on its surface. Tsumugi chose an electronic sound to have her keyboard play.

"Good afternoon keyboard." She said with a smile. Her fingers pressed down several of the keys to produce a reply that sounded like, _Wow Mugi-chan, you sure look lovely today!_

"Why thank you, keyboard." Tsumugi nodded, this exchange with her instrument was making her feel horribly lonely; and more than anything, just plain silly. So she abandoned that prospect and just played it normally. It just wasn't the same when it was her making it talk, Ritsu did it so much better. How that drummer could hold conversations like that with instruments was beyond her.

In the meantime, construction was going on as workers were working to add a home theater on the west side of her home. One of the workers must have hit something he wasn't supposed to, because the lights in her house flickered then ultimately went dead. Tsumugi's keyboard also fell to the black out.

"K-keyboard?" Tsumugi whispered and repeatedly tapped the Middle C, silence. Her boredom tempted her to shout out like a loved one had just died. But maturity overcame that feeling and she just moved onto her normal piano. She decided to give the construction workers something pleasant to listen to.

**RITSU, AND COMPANY**

"Can we ride everything, sis?" Ritsu's brother eagerly asked as the three of them began packing for their trip the following day.

"If we can." Ritsu replied and shoved a disposable camera into her tote bag, she glanced over at Mio and smiled, "Including the _Haunted Mansion_."

"H-haunted M-Mansion?" Mio shivered. An image of a blackened house with bodies hung on gallows flashed into her mind. A rational part of her mind tried to tell her that Disneyland was a _family _resort, not a place where they held public executions.

"Oh I love that one!" Ritsu's brother cheered, "Can we go in it sis? Maybe even more than once?"

"As many times as you'd like." Ritsu smiled and glared at Mio.

"I hate _you_." Mio sneered. Ritsu only laughed at that. Mio couldn't deny that she was excited about this trip. Ritsu's brother was tolerable as far as younger kids went, she knew the trip would be fun. Even if they forced her on The Haunted Mansion, how bad could it be?

**SKIP AHEAD A LITTLE WHILE**

"The week sure flew by fast." Yui remarked and stretched. "It was like nothing happened at all!"

"I know what you mean," Azusa nodded, "It felt like it was over before it started. Anyways, thank you two for having us all over."

"No worries, Yui and I are glad to have you all over." Ui assured her. Currently the entire Light Music Club was enjoying snacks that day. It was only midway through Golden Week, but time had flown by before any of them could even realize it. Azusa spent a lot of the time with Yui and Ui, just hanging around and doing what they normally did. Tsumugi came over a few times and they managed to hold a mini practice session in their living room. That lasted about ten minutes until neighbors started complaining about noise. Not 'Ma of course, it was their much less cool neighbors from across the street. The one who would die alone.

"Mio-chan, Ricchan, how was your trip?" Yui asked the pair sitting across from her. Mio instantly blushed and Ritsu smirked. That was enough to pique Yui's curiosity. Mio whispered something furiously to Ritsu, who just giggled a bit.

"Oh we had a great time." Ritsu said conversationally, "You should have seen Mio holding on to me on Space Mountain."

"It was dark..." Mio muttered.

"And how she freaked out on Splash Mountain." Ritsu giggled.

"I didn't know I would get wet!" Mio cried, embarrassed. "And I didn't know that Space Mountain would be dark, or that Thunder Mountain would be so high up, or that they would all be mountains!"

"What about the..._Haunted Mansion_!" Ritsu smirked, Mio's face went bright red and she balled her knees up against her chest. Much to everyone's surprise, the bassist was shivering and had broken out into a light sweat."

"Is...everything okay, Mio-chan?" Tsumugi cautiously asked and reached out to touch her. Mio seemed to be ignoring her as well as the rest of her surroundings. Ritsu reached into the back pocket of her jeans and retrieved a folded up newspaper clipping. She placed it on the table. Yui picked it up and read aloud...

"At Disneyland Resort in Tokyo, a popular attraction was closed for several hours after an incident involving a high school girl occurred. According to park staff, the girl managed to climb out of the ride and drop fifteen feet down without sustaining injury. Afterwords, she proceeded to sprint to the nearest exit while knocking over several of the ride's displays. Park officials claim that she quickly got lost and remained in a single place until they could find her. In her defense, the girl, whose name has been withheld at her request, said, '_There was a ghost sitting right next to me_.'"

"It's okay, Mio-chan, we all get scared sometimes." Tsumugi softly told the terrified bassist. Ritsu was in hysterics laughing at Mio's plight, it didn't take long for Yui to join in.

"Onee-chan, don't laugh at Mio-senpai, it's not nice!" Ui scolded her sister.

"Sorry Ui...she...she broke the ride!" Yui giggled and snorted, she had never heard of anyone doing anything that crazy before.

"Shut up!" Mio yelled at them. Ritsu threw and arm around Mio's shoulder drew her close.

"Okay guys that's enough, they already banned her for life. Let's not add to her problems." Ritsu announced in a semi-what serious voice.

"They banned her for life?" Yui gasped. "I didn't even know that could happen!"

"Normally they reserve that kind of punishment if you punch the guy dressed as Goofy, which apparently has happened many times, but Mio managed to upset them enough with that little spectacle." Ritsu replied and shook her head.

"Can we _please _change the subject." Mio pleaded, the water in her eyes was enough for everyone to quit their teasing. Well Yui and Ritsu at least, everyone else had their teasing level remain a steady zero.

"I hope you guys have at least half as fun as we did with your concert." Ritsu said to Yui, Ui, and Azusa. "Sorry again about going crazy on you the other day. I don't know what came over me."

"It was pretty fun, despite certain circumstances." Mio said under her breath.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have fun to fill four 2-liter bottles!" Yui cheered in reply and grabbed Ui and Azusa and pulled them close. They didn't know what she meant about the bottles, but no one was going to dampen Yui's enthusiasm. The concert was still far off, but Yui was nearly dying of anticipation. Not so much for the concert itself, but to spend time with her sister and their friend. In her eyes, nothing could spoil that kind of excitement.

Yui would learn that nothing was ever free.

**NEXT TIME, THE ROAD TRIP**

So I really hope that I portrayed everyone better than I did the first time around. I had a bit of trouble coming up with things for Tsumugi, but I hope nothing I did was too farfetched. I just hope everyone can take my outrageous situations for what they are, just silly little scenarios. Like what happened to Mio at Disneyland, I know it's not that realistic, but I was just going for funny. And Ritsu thinking condescendingly of Yui towards the beginning, she was doing it in a satirical way.

Speaking of Disneyland. That was sort of thrown in there as an afterthought. All in all, this chapter in itself is an after thought. I just wanted something before they drove to Tokyo for the concert. So just made this chapter of them doing various things.

So please forgive any out of characterness that probably surfaced again, and keep enjoying _Long Way Home_.

One last little thing, just a little warning so no one gets caught completely off guard. So far this story is very reminiscent of my other work, _A Game For Tsukasa_, and I would just like to say that it'll probably take a darker tone towards the latter half. Nothing like _Falling Stars _with people attempting suicide and getting disemboweled, but certainly some more serious events. Nothing worth making it rated M, at least so far... It's what I had in mind for this story since it hatched in my mind. So with that in mind, don't let that discourage you, read on and enjoy!

OH YEAH! In regards to reviews- I don't think having knowledge about on anime series makes you an otaku, I don't consider myself one and I've watched plenty of anime. Endless Eight isn't horrible, just repetitive. I have no knowledge of _Detroit Metal City_, and I like Greek black metal bands which are violently anti-religious.

Now for references and stuff that I take no credit for, and them I'm FINALLY finished with this section- Vanilla Crazy Cake from Portal, Steve Vai, Boston and their song, and Disneyland and all the rides.


	3. Chronicles of the Road

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 3- THE CHRONICLES OF THE ROAD**

One little thing I'd like to state. I have no idea what prefecture in Japan K-On takes place in. I just know its somewhere north-northeast of Tokyo. So the time it takes for them to drive there probably isn't accurate, so just cut me some slack and ignore that little detail.

**MAY 27TH**

"Onee-chan, wake up or we're going to be late!" Ui cried from her sister's doorway. Yui bolted up and glanced around the room quickly. Her hair more or less resembled a porcupine. According to her alarm clock, the time was just after six o'clock. Up to that point in her short life, Yui hadn't known such a time existed.

"You said we were going to be late!" Yui groaned and buried herself underneath her blanket again. Sawako had told them that she would arrive around ten o'clock to retrieve the two girls, then grab Azusa afterwords. The way Yui saw it, that warranted three hours and 45 minutes worth of sleep.

"But you promised to go jogging with me." Ui reminded her. With that, Yui gracelessly rolled out of her bed onto the floor with a loud thump. She slid across the floor, much like a sea cucumber, to her dresser. With one hand she reached up and pulled out a shirt and pair of sweat pants from it. Ui watched with some degree of amazement, as Yui dressed herself while laying down. Finally her sister stood up and put her shoes on.

Even in the sunny month of May, six in the morning was a chilly hour. And this day seemed to especially chilly, this was caused by a cold front that had lunged in without warning. By the time Yui realized that she indeed was cold, and that it was about five degrees out, it was too late to go home and retrieve a jacket.

"It's cold, Ui..." Yui groaned as they rounded another corner.

Ui, who was seemingly unaffected by the cold weather, "I think it's nice out, our house will seem warmer when we come back."

Ui was right, their house seemed like sauna when they returned. Ui went ahead and started to prepare breakfast. Yui sat on their couch wrapped in a blanket with her cell phone in hand, it was time to check up on her other friends. At seven in the morning.

"_Good morning Mio-chan, what are you up to this chilly day?_"

After several minutes, there was a reply, "_Getting ready for school_."

That was right, everyone else still had to go to school. Sawako had used her teacher prowess to excuse the three of them from school that day for the concert. She had taken a personal day, much to the disdain of the school. Yui sent her another text message, telling Mio to remember to feed Ton-chan. And that the turtle's diet was over so she could have two of the algae balls instead of just one. Although she would never voice this concern aloud, Mio firmly believed that aquatic reptiles didn't need diets. Unless they were alligators or crocodiles, those things were destined to become fat in captivity.

After eating, the two sisters packed for their trip. Since they were going to stay in a hotel overnight, they packed a spare change of clothes. Among that they also gathered some basic hygienic supplies, some base entertainment for the four hour car ride, and a camera for each of them.

Time crept by until it was around 9:30. Yui was hoping that Sawako would decide to show up early to kill the wait. But Yui knew that wasn't going to happen, chances were that their chaperone wasn't even out of bed yet. Yui glared at her sister for a moment, she took a deep breath than began a speech that she had memorized.

"Ui..." Yui inhaled, "I want you to know that you are appreciated."

She tried to sound mature, but it came out as being silly. Ui giggled.

"Thanks Onee-chan, don't worry about me. I'm happy cooking, cleaning, and watching after you." Ui smiled and assured her.

Yui threw her arms around Ui and hugged her especially tight. "I love you Ui, you're the best sister _ever_. In fact, when we get back I'll give you a whole day off of doing any housework. I'll do it all myself."

"Aww, Onee-chan, you don't have to do that." Ui reassured her. She was really thinking, _In fact don't do that, more work for me the next day_. But she didn't want to dampen her sister's kind gesture.

Yui gave Ui her serious face and voice, "Yes I do, you do too much and sometimes I feel like a burden."

Once again her serious face just looked silly, but Ui knew she was trying her best. The younger sister smiled and gently stroked the side of Yui's cheek with the back of her hand, "Onee-chan, I work so hard around the house because I like seeing you happy. I like seeing you smile."

"Ui..."

"You're not a burden to me or anyone, you never have been, and never will." Ui continued, "You're my sister and I love you no matter what, so don't ever feel like a burden or that I think anything like that. You'd have to embezzle money from me to get me on your bad side, and I don't think you're capable of that, to be honest."

Tears formed in Yui's eyes, and she lashed out in affection the only way she knew how. With a hug. There was an unspoken truth that saddened both of them, their time together was short. It wouldn't be before long that Yui would have to go off to college and start her own life. Then Ui would be left alone, bitterly alone. So that was this concert together was so important to Ui, and how she had bought 65 tickets to win the drawing. Maybe when Ui got into college they could be together again, but there would be a year long gap in between. A year of not seeing her sister's bright smile, and innocent laugh.

**MEANWHILE...**

Sawako Yamanaka felt grim satisfaction as she drove across town to retrieve Yui and Ui. For so long she would be stuck at a traffic line with some _fuckface _blaring rap, techno, or whatever the hell kids were into these days. But she had dumped a lot of money into her car's new sound system. It was now a weapon against those bass monkeys.

As she pulled up against the red light, she felt the familiar rumble underneath her seat and at the palm of her hands. Someone was playing loud rap music several cars down behind her. Sawako's fingers nimbly reached to the CD player of her small sedan and turned up the music. _Puritania _by _Dimmu Borgir _blasted through her speakers loud enough to blow her hair back.

Around her, cars started rolling up their windows and that god awful music she heard before was now just a faint whisper. Sawako smiled a sharp-toothed grin at the car next to her and drove on.

"I will _make _those girls do a cover of this song!" She said to herself with a wicked smile. It felt refreshing to go to a concert again, it made her feel young again. Sawako was wearing her faded _Megadeth _concert t-shirt from a show she saw back in '95. Fond memories resurfaced, memories of how she broke three ribs and a finger in the mosh pits. Having a heavyset man shatter several of her ribs was just a slight drawback to see Dave Mustaine live and in person. Since then, the song _Tornado of Souls _held a special place in her heart.

The traffic died down, and that was incentive enough for her to turn the music down. It only took a few minutes to find the Hirasawa residence. She pulled up on the driveway and exited the vehicle to go and retrieve the two sisters.

Yui was dragging Ui out the door with their bags as soon as Sawako was out of the car.

"Tokyo ho!" Yui cheered and ran down to the vehicle.

"Now, I hope you're prepared for this car ride. It's gonna be a long one." The teacher warned, and popped the trunk open for them to place their bags in. Yui took hers and Ui's bag and tossed it in the back.

"Next stop, Azu-nyan!"

**ROAD STORY #1. SHAMLESS BIOSHOCK REFERENCE**

Yui insisted in sitting in the back Azusa, which was alright with everyone. She was situated directly behind Sawako and was contently kicking the back of the seat.

"Would you cut that out!" Sawako peered back and snapped.

"Yessir!" Yui said with a salute and pulled her legs in close. She glanced over at Azusa, who was lazily looking out the window and decided to make conversation, "So, have you played _Bioshock __2_, yet?"

"Huh?" Azusa replied, sounding a million miles away. "Oh no, I don't play games like that."

"Well you get this really big drill, and it's _soooo _cool." Yui excitedly told her. She bent her fingers in to a drill shape and playfully jabbed Azusa's midriff while twisting her hands and making drill noises. Much to her surprise, Azusa burst into giggles and poorly hidden laughter.

"Senpai! Stop, I'm ticklish!" The young guitarist protested, and tried to pry Yui's "drill hand" away from her stomach.

"Your _Adam _shall be mine!" Yui said in the deepest voice she could and kept up the tickle attack. Azusa tried to wiggle away, but only ended up laying as prone as she could. Now with more Azusa work with, Yui began to use both her hands to tickle. This provoked and involuntary response from Azusa, the younger guitarist kicked out and managed to knock Sawako's drink out of the cup holder in between the seats.

Cold cola spilled across her blue jeans. Sawako growled then pulled over to the side of the road. She said nothing and reached across Ui to retrieve something from the glovebox. The three cringed at what it could be. She pulled out..._napkins._

People driving by couldn't help but glare at the two high school girls wiping the pants of an older woman with napkins next to a car on the side of the road.

**ROAD STORY #2. BREAK**

"Stop!" Yui screamed, and shook the back of Sawako's seat forcefully. Sawako yelped and slammed on the breaks, only before managing to veer off to the side of the road.

"What, what is it!" Sawako frantically turned around and asked. Yui said nothing and only pointed at a gas station and convenience store chain.

"I need to buy some candy and sugary drinks!" Yui happily replied and held up some of her pocket money. "Anyone want anything?"

"Milk tea!" Ui answered.

"A fruit drink." Azusa added.

"Dr. Pepper." Sawako muttered and drove them into the parking lot. Yui hopped out, money in hand and entered the store. The three of them waited in silence for her to return; all silently hoping she wouldn't knock a shelf over or something. A few minutes later, Yui came jogging back to the car, with nothing in hand.

"I'm two yen short and don't wanna take from the change tray." She said through Sawako's window. "You you have any spare change laying around?"

"Not on me, no." Sawako sighed. "I think there's some-"

"There!" Yui cried and pointed a five yen coin on the floor of the car. Before anyone could react in anyway, Yui was attempting to crawl through the window and reach it.

"Get out and I'll give it to you!" Sawako shouted at her, and tried to push Yui back out. Instead of obeying, Yui only tried harder to reach the coin.

"No, I almost have it!" Yui protested and managed to get the rest of her waist through the window. A few bystanders couldn't help but notice the high school girl halfway through a car window with her legs kicking wildly.

**ROAD STORY #3. SAWA-CHAN'S MELTDOWN**

So far this trip had made Sawako remember just why she hated car rides. She knew that it was going to be a tough ride, but Yui had proven to be ridiculously insufferable. It was now clear why her parents left her at home when they went traveling. Yui was sitting behind her contently munching on M&M's and a bag of Meltdowns; switching off between the two with every bite.

"Concerts, brings back memories..." Sawako sighed. "Did I tell you how _DeathDevil _opened for a lot of big acts?"

"_DeathDevil_?" Ui asked.

"Right, right, you don't know about my old band." The teacher mused aloud, "It was my old band in high school and college. We toured in summer during our breaks. Man we opened for _At The Gates_, _Iced Earth, Lamb of God_, and even _Morbid Angel_."

"I haven't heard of any of those." Azusa replied, "Hm, I hope we can tour some day like that. Even if we can't go to Budokan.

"Stupid _Dream Theater _better not show and take our spot there." Yui huffed. Azusa couldn't help but wonder how Yui knew about bands like that; _Dream Theater _didn't seem like her kind of music at all. Conversation tapered off again for awhile and Sawako enjoyed the momentary peace and quiet in their ride. Until Yui began again...

"Anyways..." Sawako continued, she chuckled at some old memories. "There was a show once where we did a song in English, and I sang it without knowing what I meant. The audience liked it I guess, but their reaction was kinda strange..."

"How did it go?" Yui enthusiastically asked.

"I remember the lyrics, but I still don't know what they mean." She answered back, "I'm not gonna sing them like I did, but I could recite them if you want."

"Do it, do it!" Yui cheered her on.

Sawako cleared her throat and began reciting it like a poem in English, "_Virgins are my victims, their tight interiors I explore. Sharpened utensils of torture now inserted inside of her. Sex organs extracted for eating, on her liver I am gnawing._"

"Do you know what that song is about?" Azusa asked, it seemed strange to learn a song without ever looking up what the lyrics meant. Ui, who paid attention furiously in English class, understood the gist of what she had said. Yui knew her sister was sort of knowledgeable in that field, so she went ahead and asked her.

"Ui, did you understand any of that?" Yui asked.

Ui gave her a worried face and nodded.

"What did it mean?"

Ui made a "V" with her finger and bit down on them. Yui eyed her curiously but let it go. Sawako chuckled softly, she knew damn well what the song meant and was glad she got a reaction out of at least one of them.

"Sawa-chan, Azu-nyan keeps touching me!" Yui cried from behind the driver.

"What? No I'm not!" Azusa snapped back, "There's two bags between us, how could I be touching you?"

"You put those there to throw Sawa-chan off." Yui adamantly replied.

"Wha- Why would I..." Azusa began, she flinched as she saw Yui make a drill with her fingers again. "Oh, please Yui-senpai, not this again!"

"Don't worry, I ran out of drill fuel when I was rescuing Little Sister from Mr. Bubbles." Yui replied with a smile on her face. Azusa just stared. So did Sawako and Ui.

"Yui?" Sawako asked with a blank look on her face.

"Yes, Sawa-chan?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Yui shrugged. "People ask me that...a lot."

Ui quickly came to her sister's rescue. "Onee-chan is just imaginative...among other things."

"I see..." Sawako muttered and focused on driving. That lasted about forty-five seconds.

"_Azu-nyan's touching me again!_" Yui practically shrieked. Ui thought it was odd that something like that would bother Yui. It seemed hypocritical that Yui was complaining about that. Sawako slammed on the breaks, stopping the car on the empty stretch of road.

"Okay, you're going to quit kicking the back of my chair, screaming, making _Bioshock 2 _references that make you seem out of character, chewing with your mouth open, and bitching about every little thing that someone else does that you don't like!" Sawako yelled at her in one breath. Ui and Azusa sat in stunned silence and awaited Yui's reaction. Yui held up a bag of Meltdowns and smiled, much to everyone's surprise.

"Sawa-chan, don't have a meltdown. Have a Meltdown!" Yui offered.

"What are...you know what? I don't even care anymore, give me those." Sawako muttered and snatched the bag out of her hand, "Wait, it's empty!"

"That's because I spilled them all over the floor when you slammed on the breaks!" Yui explained. "Oh yeah, and the M&M's got everywhere too...Hey! Azu-nyan was right, it was the bag brushing up against me!"

**ROAD STORY #4. LIKE AN ADULT**

"I think we should listen to some music." Sawako thought out loud, the other three girls quickly agreed. "How about some classic?"

"Like from the 60's and 70's?" Azusa asked.

"60's and 70's, what are you gay!" Sawako laughed and shook her head. Azusa gave her a hurt look, Yui and Ui were more surprised than anything. "I mean, uh sorry about that, I have low blood sugar right now. Don't give me that look!"

"Music." Yui reminded her.

"Right!" Sawako said and pressed a button on her car's stereo. "This one's a classic, you'll love it."

The song started with a heavy guitar intro and only got faster from their. Fast guitar, faster drums, disharmonious heavy metal chaos. Yui glanced at Ui and attempted something along the lines of twin-telepathy and tried to project, _She's not gonna start singing is she?_

Ui looked back, as if understanding her and Yui imagined her projecting something back, _Her fingers are tapping on the steering wheel and she's starting to bob her head the song. _

"_Sport the war!_" Sawako pretty much screamed in English to the song, "_War support! The sport is war, total war, when victory's a massacre. The final swing is not a drill, IT'S HOW MANY PEOPLE I CAN KILL!_"

"We've lost her." Yui turned and said to Azusa. Without warning Sawako quickly turned off the music and pointed at a car up ahead.

"Look at the smoky windows and crooked driving!" Sawako growled and sped up. "They're smoking pot while driving."

"What are you going to do?" Ui asked, with a tint of concern in her voice. Things regarding drugs worried her. Sawako said nothing and drove so that the two cars were parallel.

"Sawa-chan, what are you doing?" Yui asked from behind her through a mouth of Meltdowns. Sawako ignored her and rolled the window down.

"Hey!" She screamed at the other car. The passenger rolled down his window and waved.

"Sup!"

"Grow up and do meth like a fucking adult!" Sawako screamed at them then drove ahead. For what must have been the 50th time that day; the three girls could only sit in stunned silence. It seemed like car rides really brought out a different side of people. In the distance, the sky scrapers of Tokyo loomed.

"Sawa-chan?" Yui called to the driver.

"What is it now, Yui?" Sawako sighed.

"Ui _and _Azu-nyan are touching me now!"

**THE CONCERT'S IN THE NEXT CHAPTER**

Just a light hearted chapter of little plot bunnies I had in my mind. I know that everyone was probably more OOC this time than ever. But really it's all in the sake of humor, just bear with me. The OOC silliness ends with the next chapter.

Two things I wanna try and defend here, because I probably shouldn't have included them. One; Yui's references to _Bioshock 2- _For the love of Vecna, don't even bother pointing out everything wrong with that, _just don't_, alright? I KNOW it makes no sense. Next; Sawako's rant- Anyone who's ever been in a long car ride knows what it does to the soul. I was just trying to accurately portray her frustration, and her metalness all in one go.

Credit and stuff to- _Dimmu Borgir, Megadeth, At The Gates, Iced Earth, Lamb of God, Morbid Angel, Dream Theater, Cannibal Corpse, _and _Slayer. _


	4. Malicious Metal Mixup

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 4- MALICIOUS METAL MIXUP **

So needs a bit more Azusa, eh? I'll try my best with that then, but Yui is still technically the main character. But I do promise that Azusa gets a much more dominant role as the story goes on. Azusa does get _a lot _of dialogue in this chapter.

Random thought, I think that Gibson and Kyoto Animation are profiteering together. They _know _that people are going to want to buy Yui's guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, because that's what otaku's do. However, those things are like 2,000 USD on average. Woe to the obsessive otaku who buys one of those then realizes that guitar playing is actually pretty damn hard. Then there's the fact that Rockband 3 comes with the same Fender Mustang that Azusa plays.

**THE 'Z' IN TASTYCHAINSAWS IS INVISBLE AS WELL AS SILENT**

"Row C, and the thirteenth floor, can you remember that, Yui?" Sawako asked as the four of them walked to the elevator that would take them to the ground floor of the parking garage they had parked in. The concert was only about a mile away, and this was the closet parking spot.

"Of course I can!" Yui proudly declared. "Wait, why do I have to remember it?"

"In case you get hopelessly lost or something." Sawako replied, and hit the button to open the elevator. "Tokyo is a big city, and sometimes you're a few crumbs short of a whole cookie. Anyways we need to discuss a meeting place if any of us get separated."

"Maybe Tokyo Tower or something? I don't think it's something we need to worry about too much." Azusa suggested.

"_Kyoto!_" Sawako coughed and quickly glanced at Yui. "Okay, then we'll meet up at Tokyo Tower if any of us get so hopelessly loss that we can't find our way back here."

"Okay!" The three high schoolers said in eerie unison. After a minute, they exited the elevator on the ground floor and found their way to the street. The sky overhead was a gloomy gray, with strong hints of rain. People were already carrying umbrellas.

"By sheer divine alignment, both our shows are in the same direction." Sawako said, and pulled two folded up pieces of paper out of her jean pockets. "I have both the addresses written and-"

She was cut off by a group of four girls colliding into her, effectively disarming her of the folded papers.

"Oh my bad!" A high school girl with wavy hair and glasses frantically said. Sawako could see the evil look in her eye, it had been done on purpose.

"It's cool..." Sawako lied and picked up the papers with the concert directions on them. The girls who collided into them walked off, while continuing their idle banter. Sawako sighed and handed Yui the corresponding address.

"Thank you, Sawa-chan!" Yui replied, studying the address written down. She immediately noticed a fallacy. "Sawa-chan, we have to go the other way."

Sawako looked at her own paper, "Right, I'm going the other way it looks like. Time for us to part ways it looks like."

"See you after the show!" Yui cried, waved, and walked the other way.

"Thank you for the ride!" Ui said as well, and followed her sister.

"Stay out of trouble!" Azusa worriedly added.

It was easy for them to find where they were going, the stream of people made it simple to find the correct path.

"You two have your tickets ready?" Azusa asked, and pulled her own out of her back pocket. Yui and Ui both flashed theirs.

"Got my wallet ready for souvenirs too." Yui said. She was practically skipping in excitement, she grabbed both her sister and Azusa and skipped with both of them in tow. They passed row after row parked cars and people tailgating for it. The smell of hotdogs was very prevalent in the air, like a thick meaty aroma. Yui, even after eating roughly half her body weight in candy on the car ride, felt her stomach rumble at the scent of the food. Azusa had no taste for hotdogs, and ultimately ignored it. As did Ui.

"This looks like the line for the ticket gate." Azusa said and pointed at the line of people down the block. The line consisted of thick groups of people chatting away about random nonsense. Most of them looked to be college kids, and foreigners.

"Is this right line?" Azusa asked Ui and Yui. They had followed the directions, and it was certainly a line for a concert. But a lot of the people's conversations seemed a bit...odd.

"...Dude that's nothing, I got three ribs broken at a _Mastodon _concert last spring!" Someone said to his buddy.

"I ate so many hotdogs last time, that I threw up blood!" Another said to a friend.

"Remember the time I grabbed the singer's man boob, and he punched me so hard that my nose broke!" A rowdy college student screamed to his line companions.

"Yui-senpai, I really don't think we're in the right line." Azusa said again. It was too late to turn back though. They were herded in with the rest of the crowd down the line amongst all the people.

"We followed the directions perfectly, Azu-nyan." Yui reminded her, "And this is a line for a con- Hey, Ui, what are those funny looking cigarettes people are smoking?"

"Onee-chan, let's play a word game or something while waiting...and ignore the funny looking cigarettes." Ui nervously said, and pulled Yui closer to her.

"Okay!" Yui happily replied. "Okay, let's play twenty questions."

"Okay. Person, place or thing?" Azusa asked.

"Thing."

"Is it red and orange?" The younger guitarist asked.

"Yes."

Azusa sighed, "Is it Gitah?"

"How did you know!" Yui gasped.

"Just a hunch." Azusa shrugged.

"The line's moving up." Ui informed them. Indeed it was, the crowd of people was slowly inching forward.

"Azu-nyan, I have riddle for you!" Yui said as they stepped up.

"Okay, riddle away." Azusa replied.

"What's made out of six people, sounds like Cookie Monster gargling battery acid, and makes helicopter noises?" Yui riddled her.

"Onee-chan, is this even a real thing?" Ui asked, giving her sister a bit of a scolding look.

"It is so, Ui!" Yui defensively yelped.

"Let me think..." Azusa muttered and stroked her chin, "Is it the band _Whitechapel_?"

Yui spat out her metaphorical drink, and stared at Azusa wide-eyed, "How...how did you get that right?"

Azusa shrugged, "People on 2chan were talking about them the other day. Just a random guess, really."

Yui spat out her metaphorical drink again, "You go on 2chan?"

"Just for threads about cats! Not for the gratuitous amounts of porn! Definitely...not...the porn..." Azusa said and waved her arms in defense. "Hey look, we're at the end of the line!"

They were at the spot where a woman in her twenties, with lots of interesting tattoos, was taking tickets and letting people through. She saw the three girls and nodded, "Good to see some younger people showing up. So far it's been pretty much all foreigners and college kids."

"Really? I don't know as much about demographics as I thought I did." Azusa replied and handed their three tickets to her. The woman took them and stuck them away without looking at them or anything.

"Yeah, enjoy the show, kids!" She said and let them through.

"Um, where were our seats again?" Ui stopped them, and asked the ticket woman.

"Hey, just stand wherever, I really don't care. Courtesy from me!" The woman told them with a sly grin on her face. "Chances are that everyone will be moving around a bunch with the mosh pits and crowd surfing. So just try not to push any one too hard on your journey to the front."

"O-okay!" Ui said, and was swept along with crowd along with her two companions.

"This isn't anything like Summerfest." Azusa remarked as they followed the rest of the crowd.

"Yeah..." Yui agreed, "It's like everyone is a lot more chill."

"Chill?" Azusa repeated with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah, I heard someone in line say that." Yui explained, "He said it like this..." Yui stopped, raised one eyebrow, got into her best cool pose, and smiled only using the corner of her mouth. "_Chill._"

**MEANWHILE...**

"Oh, fuck me..." The ticket taker muttered when she looked at the tickets the three girls had handed her. They were for the _Aya Hirano _concert about a mile away from there. Instead these three girls were going to see an American death metal group that was touring there.

"Oops..."

**MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE...**

Sawako grimaced as the J-pop artist took the stage. She looked out of place there with her _Megadeth _t-shirt and faded black jeans. All around her were screaming teenage girls jumping around with glowsticks and other assorted nonsense. _How the FUCK did I end up here! Music like this can't get you wet! This is like a desert of pop!_

"This sucks..." Sawako muttered, and looked for an escape. The place seemed pretty boxed in.

"Is that...a _Megadeth _t-shirt?" The girl standing next to her asked. Sawako turned to see a teenage girl with long wavy, pink hair that was obviously dyed. It had been the girl who she had bumped into outside.

"Yeah, what about it?" Sawako nearly growled, ready to unleash all her frustration on this poor girl.

"Now I feel bad for running into you outside, I didn't see it back then." The teenager replied, "Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were one of my own."

"One of your own?"

The girl unbuttoned her jacket to reveal a concealed _Iron Maiden _shirt. "You were going to that other show weren't you?"

Sawako nodded, "Yeah, but I ran into you and got mixed up. Thanks a lot."

"Shit, my bad." The girl with the _Iron Maiden _shirt sighed, "I was trying to lose the crowd of faggots that dragged me here by running into your group. Wanna ditch this place and see if we can hit up that other show?"

The older woman smiled, "Alright, _Maiden, _let's do this."

"Alright, _Deth_."

**METALIC MAYHEM**

"WAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The singer for this band screamed, pushing his vocal chords to the limit, finishing the song. Yui, Ui, and Azusa stood in stunned silence as everyone around them violently headbanged and moshed in violent circles.

"Onee-chan, where are we!" Ui shouted above the noise.

"I don't know Ui!" Yui screamed back, "The Ninth Layer of Hell, I think! What do you think Azu-nyan!"

"Don't ask me!" Azusa answered. Just as the singer started singing about using taxidermy to make love to his woman forever after her death. The crowd got even wilder as the guitarist tore away with a solo. This somehow ended up with Ui being the subject of crowd surfing.

"They're carrying Ui back their lair!" Yui screamed, and reached out for her sister.

"Onee-chan, don't smoke the funny looking cigarettes!" Were Ui's last words as the crowd absorbed her. Yui could see Ui's hand reaching out from the crowd, she tried to grab it, but it was too late.

Yui gripped Azusa's wrist and held it tight, "Azu-nyan, don't let go. I'm not losing you too!"

"Yui-senpai, I think a death wall is forming around us!" Azusa said in a worried tone. The band began their next song, all of a sudden Yui and Azusa were standing alone with the crowd surrounding them. A circle, around 10 meters in diameter, of clear space formed, and they were in the middle of it.

"_Lord below! Your abysmal horrors I call forth!_" The singer screaming in an extremely deep voice.

"What's a death wa-" Yui tried to ask just before the crowd charged straight into where they were standing. When they backed up to commence the slamming again, Yui and Azusa were no longer standing there.

"She just took on a death wall head on, what a trooper!" Some guy cheered to his friend and pointed at Yui, who was stumbling around trying to come to her senses. After having several dozen people charge her from all directions, she was a little disoriented.

"Where's her friend that was there too?" Another one asked. Azusa had been pulled to the other side of the floor, and was now being thrown about, above the crowd with some other people as well. For a brief moment she was thrown onto the stage with some other people as well. She got a brief look at the band, before being thrown back into the sea of rowdy people.

Yui wasn't fairing as well. She was strained from the multiple mosh-pits she had been sucked into, and also contact high from all the pot smoke. Yui knew she was out of it when she thought she saw Sawako headbanging like crazy with some other girl.

**AFTERMATH**

"Sawako-san!" Ui cried when she saw her chaperone, "Have you seen Onee-chan?"

"I haven't." Sawako grimly replied. They were standing in the parking lot outside of the building, there were multiple kiosks for programs and food standing about.

**ALONE TOGETHER**

"Yui-senpai, there you are!" Azusa sighed in relief when she saw Yui inch her way out of the crowd. It was raining lightly, and Azusa had been worried deeply. She hadn't been able to find anyone else after the hell that was the concert. Now here was Yui wearing the hoodie for the band they had just been forced to sit through, _The Black Dahlia Murder_, it had their name in purple letter in English, with a very bloody werewolf graphic on it, she was also holding an armful of hotdogs. Her eyes had a glazed look to them.

"Heyuh, Azu-nyan. Wanna try these hotdogs?" Yui asked, then giggled a bit. "These are like...the hotdogs of the world. Like, seriously dude, you have to try these. I mean you're thinking that you know what I mean when I say they're good. But you really don't Nakano...you really don't."

"Yui-senpai, are you okay?" Azusa asked. Instead of replying, Yui shoved one of the hotdogs in Azusa's mouth. It turned out that Yui had been correct, those _were _the hotdogs of the world.

"Interesting band, Nakano, interesting band." Yui muttered, in a voice akin to the one that she possessed when her voice had been thrown.

"Nakano?" Azusa said, after finishing her hotdog, with a confused look, "Yui-senpai, I'm worried about you. Let's find Sawako-sensei and go home. This day has made me tired."

"Tired? How could you be tired Nakano?" Yui asked in that strange voice, "That show was alive, Nakano, it was _alive_. The union of the crowd was inspiring. The pits and walls were crazy, but no one was getting seriously harmed. Didn't you feel the energy when they picked you and threw you around for several minutes, and when you were up there with the bad? The tremolo picking, the blast-beats, the obvious _Slayer _influences, it truly was an amazing experience. I am deeply moved Nakano."

Azusa squinted her eyes and stared Yui down hard. She snapped her fingers in Yui's face, but there was no reaction from her slightly bloodshot eyes. An idea sprouted in her head, she took out her cellphone and found her pictures. She found the picture she was looking for and practically shoved it into Yui's face.

"Nakano, what's this?" Yui asked, it was a picture of Ton-chan who wore her normal turtle grin. She was about to say something else, but her gaze was matched with Ton-chan's picture. The blank face of Yui distorted a bit.

"It's Ton-chan, Yui-senpai, and she's very disappointed in you." Azusa told her with a stern look on her face.

"Ton...chan?" Yui said again in her normal voice. Her face blanked out again, and there was an extremely vacant look in her eyes. Azusa was worried for a moment that this concert had genuinely broken Yui's brain; the last thing it needed was _more _damage inflicted. That was a subject that commonly appeared in Azusa's mind. Yui wasn't what you'd call normal, and Azusa often wondered what was really different about her. It could have been that she was just imaginative, but sometimes Azusa wondered if maybe Yui wasn't hugged enough as a child or something. It didn't matter right then and there though, they had other matters to attend to.

"Alright, Yui-senpai, we need to find Sawako-sensei and your sister." Azusa declared, and looked around for them among the crowd. Yui was still just standing there, "Yui-senpai, are you okay, you're acting really weird."

Suddenly, that look of vacancy disappeared and her eyes were normal again. "Azu-nyan, look! They have body spray over there for sale, and it has pictures of cats on it. So _cute_!"

"Glad to have you back, Yui-senpai." Azusa muttered under her breath. Yui grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her over to the kiosk that was selling body spray, with cat logos on it.

"What does _Sparkle Fun_ smell like?" Azusa asked after looking at one of the scents they had available.

"For only 3,000 yen I can find out!" Yui happily said, and made a purchase before Azusa could react.

"You just spent all that money on...___Body spray!_" Azusa screamed at her senior guitarist. Her frustration was rising quickly, and uncontrollably. This whole day had been what Azusa declared as a, "Horrible fucking waste of time, money, and overall disappointment". The car ride had sucked, they ended up at the wrong show, and at that show she had been thrown around like a ragdoll for nearly an hour; now Yui was starting to make Azusa lose the last of her sanity. Spending a 10th of her money on something so trivial was only making it worse.

Yui smiled and sprayed a cloud of it at Azusa's chest, effectively replacing the smell of sweat, hotdogs, and pot with the smell of _Sparkle Fun_. She gave Azusa a focused look, then spoke, "Yeah, definitely smells like _Sparkle Fun_."

Azusa pulled at her twin tails and held back a growl of frustration, "Let's...just...go...home..." She said through gritted teeth.

"Is something wrong, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked, not really paying attention. She pulled out the folded piece of paper from her pocket that had the directions back to their parking spot.

"Nothing worth mention, Yui-senpai, nothing worth mentioning." Azusa grumbled, "You still have the directions right?"

Yui nodded. She studied the directions for a minute, "Okay, we came into the venue from over there..." She pointed over the building where they had gotten in line, "No we're on the other side, so that means we have to go that way!" Yui pointed down the street to a much more busy road.

Azusa silently followed her down to the busier street. Cars, taxis, and buses were all zooming by. The traffic hadn't had been there when they had arrived, and it was also getting dark. The road was nearly unrecognizable now.

"I think we cross there..." Yui said, and pointed down to an intersection a few blocks away. Its traffic lights shined brightly against the darkening city.

"I don't remember walking that far down the street." Azusa remarked, "In fact I remember us just crossing it, not walking down it at all."

"But we walked down a one way street." Yui reminded her, "Which means we have to go down the street next to it to get back to the parking garage."

"That makes sense...I think." Azusa shrugged, and continued to follow Yui. The concert had worn her out, body and spirit. All she wanted was for the day to be over and her to just curl up in her bed back home. Or maybe stay at a hotel if Sawako saw fit, which was fine by the young guitarist. Speaking of which...

"If we ended up seeing _The Black Dahlia Murder _like Sawako-san had wanted to... Does that mean she ended up that Aya Hirano concert?" Azusa asked her senpai.

Yui thought about it for a moment, "If she did, then she's lucky."

**SPEAKING OF WHICH...**

"Where are they?" Sawako asked rhetorically, while leaning against her red van. Ui stood next to her, visibly worried about her sister, but not so much Azusa. Azusa was a smart, capable, and responsible girl. But Yui on the other hand, well even Ui had to admit that her Onee-chan was a few crumbs short of a full cookie sometimes. That was why Ui was worried about her, she loved her sister and the city was dangerous place.

"I saw a lot of hotdog concessions, maybe Yui got held up with those?" Ui suggested, which was half true.

Sawako shrugged, her eyes had a blood shot, almost sinister look that nearly frightened Ui. The contact high she had gotten, along with nearly everyone else from the outrageous amounts of dope smoked, and the fact that she was was perpetually squinting since she had lost her glasses in the show, mixed with her tussled hair, gave her the look of a punk-rock artist. This unnerved Ui very much.

"I'm going to call them..." Sawako stated, and took her cell phone from her pocket.

**HOWEVER...**

Yui leaned against the edge of the wooden bridge they were on, and studied the directions carefully. Azusa peered over the side and into the dark water beneath, wonder just how they had ended up in the suburbs so quickly.

"I think I took a wrong turn...several times." Yui grimaced, "Hey, I know, I'll call Sawa-chan and have her rescue us!"

"Good thinking." Azusa found herself complimenting.

Yui turned around and leaned over the side of the bridge while dialing Sawako's number. Just as she was dialing, her cellphone vibrated from Sawako trying to call her at the same time. Yui shuttered in surprise from the sudden burst of vibration...and watched her cell phone jump out of her hands and fall into the black water below.

"Phone-chan!" Yui called out in mourning, and reached meekly towards the water below. Azusa didn't know whether to scold her for losing her phone, or question her for naming her phone...as well as every other object she came into contact with. The most interesting being "Electric Toothbrush-chan".

"Azu-nyan, do you have Phone-chan #2 with you!" Yui turned and desperately asked her.

"You mean _my _cell phone? No I didn't bring it today." Azusa grimly replied.

Yui sighed, and slumped down against the ground, looking particularly defeated.

"Yui-senpai, you're getting your new hoodie dirty." Azusa pointed out, thinking how it was strange that she would pick that of all things to point out.

"I don't care." Yui pouted, "Now they'll never find out, we're going to die here."

"We're not going to die." Azusa sighed, "Listen, let's just find out way to Tokyo Tower and meet up with them there."

"You're right." Yui said and stood up, "Do you know the way there?"

"N-no." Azusa admitted, "But we can ask for directions!"

"We're good with people, we can do this!" Yui cheerfully said, "Hold on though, this is Tokyo, what if people don't understand our accent?"

"What's wrong with our accent?" Azusa had to ask.

"People here speak in a Kansai dialect right?" Yui asked, "They might not understand us."

"Yui-senpai, I don't think that's right." Azusa sighed, "I'm sure they can understand us just fine, and I don't think people here speak with a Kansai dialect either."

"Listen to my Kansai dialect and tell me how it sounds," Yui said, she cleared her throat and began, "Thou noble warrior, my companion and I seek itinerary to the great Tower of Tokyo. Dost thou swordsman knoweth the way?"

"_Kansai, _Yui-senpai, not _Kensai_." Azusa shook her head in disbelief, "I can guarantee you that Bushido practices are the last thing we're going to find here."

"What makes you think that? We are in the capital after all." Yui pointed out.

"I've had at least three NEETs try and flirt with me on our way here, this place isn't exactly dripping with chivalry." Azusa answered, "Whatever, let's just go and find directions to Tokyo Tower. I want this day to be over."

"But remember, Azu-nyan, you have to be _chill_." Yui said again with her cool pose and face.

It didn't take long for them to find someone walking down that road, Yui flagged them over.

"Hey, what's up?" A young man greeted them, standard bow included.

"Hello sir, my friend and I were wondering-" Azusa began before Yui interrupted with a loud whisper that the man easily heard.

"Azu-nyan, you're not being _chill_." Yui whispered loudly from behind her. Azusa sighed loudly.

"Eh, sorry, we've had a long day." She told the man with a hint of embarrassment, "Anyways, we were wondering if we could get directions to Tokyo Tower?"

"Oh, yeah sure, just head back to that big road that leads here. Then you can take a bus straight there." He replied cheerfully.

"Thank you, thank you." Azusa said and bowed in quick succession, "Um, which line to we take?"

"Bus 45 will take you there. It's about an hour drive though from where we're at, maybe half that if traffic's good. It should be 5th stop if I remember. It'll be right there." He informed her, "Well, I gotta get home for dinner, hope you guys make it there okay."

"Thanks again." Azusa said and waved as he left. Her demeanor quickly faded to black, "An hour drive, it has to be nine o'clock already..."

As she finished her sentence, it began to rain even harder, no long just a light drizzle like it had been. Yui smiled and caught a drop on her tongue, "It's a good thing this hoodie is black, huh?"

Azusa, who was wearing a white shirt, was not looking forward to the wetness. They followed the mans directions to the busy street again, taking shelter in the rain where they could.

"There's the stop!" Yui said and pointed at a covered bus stop, it was unoccupied.

"That one is for buses 12, 34, and 35." Azusa pointed out, "Not the one we want."

"He said 35 though." Yui argued, "This is where we want to be."

"Are you sure?" An unsure Azusa asked.

"Definitely, let's sit down and enjoy not being in the rain." Yui said and pulled Azusa by the wrist to the stop. "Do you think Gitah is hungry right now?"

"Do I think... your guitar is hungry?" Azusa repeated, "You know what, fine, I'm sure. But I'm sure he ordered take-out since you're not there."

"I hope he didn't spend too much money." Yui sighed, "We're on a tight budget, and he likes to eat from nice places. But on the other hand, he might get sick from eating at a really cheap place. What about your guitar, Azu-nyan?"

"My guitar doesn't have as much personality as yours." Azusa replied, "She makes music, and that's about it."

"Sounds boring." Yui remarked, "Anyways, how about that concert? It wasn't Hirano-san, but it was fun right?"

"No." Azusa borderline growled.

"Why?"

"Getting thrown around by stoned college kids, and listening to death metal is not my idea of fun." Was her reply.

"I thought the music was kind of cool." Yui said under her breath, "The guitarist played some neat stuff, like that one song that went like _jyan jyan jyan JYAN JYAN jyan jyan, jyan jyan, JYAN JYAN, jyan jyan. _Then the singer was like _blah blah blah RAWR, _and then the drums were like _bambambambambambam _really fast. Then the guitar went _druhun druhun DUN dun dun DUN_, remember that?"

"No." Azusa admitted, "Metal is not a genre of music I think I'll ever enjoy. Too...aggressive."

Yui placed a finger on her chin, "I wonder what it would be like if we were metal..."

There was pause between them, Yui just stared blankly passed Azusa, "Yui-senpai?"

"Huh, I was expecting it to switch to a scene of us being all metal or something. I guess not." Yui shrugged, "Maybe later?"

"Maybe in my dreams tonight." Azusa suggested, further breaking the 4th wall. The wall that mattered the least. "Oh, there's the bus."

"Oh, I had an idea!" Yui told her, as the bus was pulling up, "We should name our party!"

"Party?" Azusa said with cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah, we're like an adventuring party right now, adventuring through Tokyo." Yui replied, "We can be the _AzuYui Project _until we get more members. I'm the president, and also the wizard."

"Sure..."

The two of them payed their bus fare and boarded. The bus was rather empty, so they grabbed a seat towards the back. Yui sat at the window with her tote bag, and bags of souvenirs, on her lap. Azusa sat next to her, and braced herself for the long drive ahead, but at least Sawako would be there to meet them.

**ABOUT 45 MINUTES LATER**

"I specifically said to meet here, right?" Sawako asked, her and Ui were standing at Tokyo Tower in the rain, waiting for Yui and Azusa.

"Sawako-san, I'm scared for Azusa-chan and Onee-chan." Ui said in a trembling voice.

"Azusa seems like a smart girl, and a voice of reason." Sawako muttered under her breath, "However, this is a big city. I'd break it down to three options."

"What are those?" Ui asked.

"If you're an optimist, they're on their way right now. If you're a realist, they're at a police station, or horribly lost...or horribly lost in a police station." Sawako told her.

"What's the third option?"

"If you're a pessimist. They're either dead...or raped...or both...or being raped...or being killed...or being raped and killed at the same time...or being raped while dead."

"_Sawako-san_!" Ui screamed through the tears that were forming, "Don't talk like that!"

**ALIVE WITH THEIR PANTS ON**

"This isn't Tokyo Tower." Azusa said, after getting off after the 5th stop.

"I think we got on wrong bus." Yui observed, now they were in front of a cheap motel downtown. There were already six homeless people in her line of sight, "Alright, no problem. Let's just catch the next one."

"No!" Azusa shouted, causing a few pedestrian heads to turn, "You just lost the privilege of navigating and making decisions!"

"Aw, why?" Yui asked, not sounding hurt in anyway.

"What do you mean _why_!" Azusa nearly screamed at her, "You've gone the wrong way _every single time_! I'm impeaching you!"

"I don't believe I've ever been spoken to like that before. Does that mean I'm the rhythm guitarist now?" Yui pouted.

"Yes!" Azusa declared, "And as the new president of the _AzuYui Project_, I declare that we...we..." She collapsed on the bench at the bus stop.

"Azu-nyan?"

"I don't know, Yui-senpai, I just don't know." Azusa sighed, and buried her face in her palms, trying to hide the tears running down her face, "I don't know what to do now. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm lost."

"How about we stay the night at the hotel right there?" Yui suggested, "It has a restaurant, and looks pretty cheap. We'll figure out what to do in the morning."

"It says it's a _Love Hotel._" Azusa said, after reading the sign, "Can we find a different place?"

"We love each other though, right?"

"_No_. But it says cheap room service on the sign." Azusa read.

"And free wireless internet!" Yui cheered.

"How would that help us?"

"It wouldn't!"

**THE COLD**

The place had been cheap, Azusa used her own money to rent a room, and buy some food. Just Yakisoba, nothing fancy. But it was definitely filling. They sat on the floor and ate in their wet clothes.

"Is it me, or is it really cold in here?" Azusa remarked. Yui nodded.

"It's because you're wearing wet clothes." Yui said, "They have a shower here, you should use it while your clothes dry."

"They'll still be damp in the morning." Azusa replied with a shake of her head, "I'm going to catch a cold for sure."

"I still have a dry shirt underneath my new hoodie, and my pants didn't get that wet." Yui told her, "In the morning I'll go check out the thrift store across the street for an outfit you can wear tomorrow."

"Thank, Yui-senpai." Azusa whispered. "However, I would have preferred if they gave us a room with two beds, instead of one."

"We can share." Yui said with a nod of her head, "It won't be any different from the car ride here, except we'll be sleeping."

"And we'll be naked since our clothes will be drying." Azusa reminded her, she blushed then sighed loudly, "It can't be helped. So let's lay down some rules."

"Okay, like what?"

"Do _not_ hug me. Do _not _try to cuddle with me. Do _not _look at me and make a remark about me being cute." Azusa sternly said, with a frown on her face, "If you do any of these, I'm putting on my wet clothes and going to get another room. I don't care if this sounds mean or not, I'm not putting up with your antics tonight. Today has been way too much."

This time Yui did look a tad bit hurt, "Why do think I would do stuff like that?"

"Because you do all of those daily!" Azusa nearly screamed at her, "It's one thing if it's at school, at least I can shrug it off like nothing happened, maybe joke about it with Mugi-senpai. But not here. Now, I'm going to go take a shower and then go to bed. Keep to your half and I'll keep to mine."

Yui sat in sad silence as Azusa made her way to the washroom, "Azusa-san?"

Azusa stopped at that, Yui had _never _called that. She sighed and glanced behind her, "Yui-senpai?"

"Are you mad at me?" Yui asked, her carefree demeanor all but gone.

"I..." Azusa didn't know how to reply to that, "No I'm not mad at you, Yui-senpai. I'm just disappointed. When I joined the Light Music Club, you promised to take care of me. This isn't taking care of me."

Yui sat there in the dim light and listened to the sounds of water pouring inside and outside. The rain wasn't letting up. She cleaned up after their meal, and straightened up the rest of the room. A job that would have been reserved for Ui if she was there.

When Azusa exited the washroom, she was surprised to find Yui laying face down on the bed, with no blankets. A quick glance told Azusa that she was already asleep. She crept silently across the room, placed her folded wet towel on the back of a chair. It wasn't just the wet clothes, that room really was cold. With just two strides, she slipped across the room and nestled into the bed on the floor. The sheets were thick, and all of a sudden the room didn't see quite as cold. The horrors of that day were now giving away to sleep.

Before she could doze off, something in her brain flashed a warning. Yui was sleeping in wet clothes in a room where the air conditioning was set to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with a fan blowing away. It would be a miracle if she didn't wake up with pneumonia. Azusa realized that she could only just hear Yui's teeth chattering over the storm outside.

"Yui-senpai!" Azusa gasped and crawled over to her, Yui was huddled into a ball and shivering.

"It's c-c-c-cold, Az-z-zu-nyan." Yui stuttered.

"Why?" Azusa asked rhetorically and helped Yui up, she started leading her to the bathroom to get her wet clothes off, "Why did you do this to yourself, you're going to get sick!"

"S-sorry." Yui replied, and shuttered at as Azusa helped her get out of her soaking wet clothes, "I felt really bad and just want to go to sleep. Sorry I'm not doing a good job taking care of you."

"Don't say that, Yui-senpai." Azusa whispered, and led to Yui back to where warm sheets were awaiting her. She was going to have few choice words for the receptionist of the place about the broken AC and fan that didn't turn off. Guilt was overwhelming her now, her words had made Yui somehow neglect her own health out of self pity. She laid Yui down where she had been laying before, Yui quickly made herself comfortable, and heaved a sigh of relief.

Yui gave Azusa a warm smile, and with bright eyes said, "I'm not doing a very good job at being a senpai am I? You're the one taking care of me."

"I know you're doing your best. A lot of stuff happened today, and none of it was your fault." Azusa said and laid down in the damp spot that Yui had been laying previously.

"Thanks, Azu-senpai." Yui whispered.

"Don't worry about it." Azusa said, and tried to get comfortable. She had underestimated just how soaked they had been. All the water from Yui's waterlogged clothes moistened that part of the bed pretty bad, along with leaving a lot of dirt and other debris that had clung to her clothes. She rolled over and faced Yui, who had her back to her, "Yui-senpai, can you move over a little bit?"

"Yeah." Yui sleepily said and scooted to the furthest reaches of the bed, so she was halfway on the cold hardwood floor.

Azusa moved closer to Yui, and could barely make her form out from the moonlight coming through the window. Despite all the days events, she was just laying their peacefully, almost smiling. Azusa felt better knowing that her harsh words earlier hadn't had left any noticeable impact.

"Yui-senpai?"

"Huh, what is it Azu-nyan?" Yui peered over behind her, and replied.

"You may have gotten us lost multiple times, made us take the wrong bus, and now I'm stuck here away from home while my parents are worrying about me in a freezing cold motel room..." Azusa said in an almost pleasant tone. Yui looked a little worried, she was afraid Azusa would scold her again, but that wasn't the case, "But for what it's worth. There's no one else I'd rather be stuck in this situation with, than you."

Yui rolled over so she was facing Azusa, "R-really?"

"Yeah." Azusa nodded, "Mio-senpai would probably have me still wandering the streets trying to find Sawako, I don't know about Mugi-senpai, and Ritsu-senpai would probably get me killed somehow..."

"Yeah," Yui chuckled, "That Ricchan would probably get you both horribly maimed and killed. But I'm glad you're the one I got stuck in this situation, everyone else would have probably hit me...multiple times..." She ended the sentence with a shaky laugh.

"Let's just try to get some sleep, okay?" Azusa said, Yui nodded and rolled back over. Even with the warm sheet, Azusa was still having trouble getting comfortable, something was missing, something that completed her. Another thought replaced that one.

"Yui-senpai, are you okay? You're barely on the bed anymore."

"I'm fine." Yui replied with forced cheerfulness, "Do you have enough space?"

Azusa didn't reply. _Stupid Yui-senpai, why did you have to take my words so seriously!_

The younger guitarist heaved a heavy sigh then stuck one arm under Yui and one above.

"Azu-nyan, what-" Yui tried to say as Azusa grabbed Yui and hefted her over her so they had switched places. Azusa didn't let go though, she turned her grip into a hug, and buried her face into Yui's neck and shoulder. Yui's body was still cold from earlier, and Azusa happily shared her own warmth. Her arms were wrapped around Yui in a tight embrace, making special care not to make contact with Yui's chest. She was successful for the most part too, for the most part.

Her arm forearm still grazed across that sensitive spot. If Yui even acknowledged Azusa's arm as being there, she did a good job hiding it. It was a strange feeling, Azusa thought, having her arm up against one of the most sacred places on a woman's body; Yui's nonetheless. A part of her body that some man would no doubt have fun with in later years. Yet Azusa couldn't imagine that, she couldn't imagine Yui in any sexual situation whatsoever. It didn't fit the guitarist at all -Azusa also couldn't help but wonder if Yui even knew what sex was- but at the same time Azusa knew that both Yui and her wouldn't be virgins forever. They would eventually both be married with kids someday. She had never given it much thought, but now Azusa knew that they weren't going to be kids for much longer. That thought almost saddened her; not all of her was ready to grow up and become an adult.

Yui just laid there, realizing just how cold she had been now that she had a warm body up against her. Her eyes were wide open as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. First she had been laying halfway on the floor, then Azusa had flipped her over so they had switched places. Now Azu-yan was..._cuddling with her_. This addled Yui's mind, considered how hostile Azu-yan had been to her earlier that night.

The sheer anger in Azusa's voice earlier had been an eye opener for Yui. Sure people had scolded her in her life plenty of time, that happened to everyone. But Yui prided herself in being able to shrug that kind of stuff off, yet still find the lesson in it, and eventually fix her mistake. However, this time it wasn't something she couldn't just smile and apologize for. A voice in her head, resembling Mio's voice, finally decided to speak up that day, _Well Hirasawa Yui, you sure fucked up this time? Maybe even lost a friend, way to go. Way to go._

But now Azusa was embracing her, while naked; not that the latter really mattered in this given situation. Perhaps she felt bad about everything she had, and this was her way of saying sorry. No it wasn't that, Yui knew what it was.

That strange empty feeling that had plagued Azusa earlier was now gone. As Yui laced their fingers together, and lightly kissed the back of Azusa's hand, it became clear what was missing inside her.

_ That's what I was missing...And I have it now._

**NO METAL BASED DREAM SEQUENCE**

Bear with me, I have a lot to say here. Maybe this way you can get a glimpse of what was going in my head this chapter.

Well finally finished with this chapter, took awhile, but I finally sat down and finished it. I like to think that at over 7k works, that it was worth the wait for you all. It's also worth mentioning that I really worked hard this time, unlike the previous three chapters. I really went all out this time, and I think it shows. Not to mention the gracious amounts of fluff between Azusa and Yui. And like I said, a lot of the silliness ends here, sorry to those who may have really enjoyed it. But the fluff, romantic content, drama, and conflict all really take off here.

Speaking the romantic stuff. Yes I decided to go with a full blown AzuYui story here. I was debating it with myself for awhile, but I feel like it really helps the story overall. It adds a lot more flexibility to what I can do later on, and it gives more potential for drawing out more emotions from you, the reader. Keep in mind that I tread lightly on this sort of thing, and pace it realistically. This wont be like a Mitsu oneshot you'll find on this site.

The concert that they attended on mistake, it was a real show. If you go on youtube and search for "The Black Dahlia Murder live in Tokyo", you can find it instantly. The band posted that video on facebook, and that's when I saw it and decided that they would have a mix up and attend that show instead.

If you think about it, it's for the best that I did that show instead of the Aya Hirano one. They say, "write about what you know", and which do you think I could have done better? A show from an artist whose stuff I know only from anime songs, or a band whose live performances I've been subjected to frequently and also played in Japan recently? Do the math, you'll see why I did what I did. Watching me attempt to write about the other show would have been painful to say the least.

The only thing wrong with it is how I said the show took place in the 26th, but it actually was on the 24th. But that's not really anything worth mentioning. Coincidentally, those dates are the birthdays of my brother and ex-girl friend. I don't know why I mentioned that...

As far as length goes, I'm not expecting this surpass 10 chapters. I'm not completely sure of how some of the events will play out, but 10 is the number I'm sticking with now. One this is certainly certain though- For Yui and Azusa, it will be a Long Way Home.


	5. How The Morning Sun Wanes

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 5- HOW THE MORNING SUN WANES**

I am overly pleased to see that the hard work I exerted into the last chapter payed off, and that it seemed to please readers. Good news, I finally know how I want this story to end, and have all the events fleshed out in my mind. No more fumbling in the dark.

However, with out realizing it, I made that chapter _much _longer than I had intended. I just went with it, and before I knew it I was at 6k words, and still going. So this chapter is pretty much just what's going on in Azusa's conflicted mind, and how she believes that Yui is falling on love with her, and how she deals with that. Gah, sorry it ended so lengthy.

There is a bit more conflict also, but that's one of my favorite aspects of any story. Call me sadistic, but I love seeing friendships fall apart, lovers turn against each other, and brothers killing brothers. Keep in mind, it makes their reunions all the more sweeter.

**I DREAM OF YUI**

Azusa didn't know how she had gotten to this stage, or why the crowd was so large, but she had a show to play. Her hair was down, which was rare, and instead of a her Fender Mustang, she was now holding a black and white Gibson Flying V guitar, much like the one that Sawako had. She turned to Yui, who was across the stage. Miraculously, Yui was holding a black and white Gibson X-plorer instead of Gitah. _Maybe Gitah was sick, he did eat cheap take out._

She was going to ask Yui about it, but the three clicks from Ritsu's drumsticks indicated it was time to play. Without thinking, Mio, Yui, and her began tremolo picking in bursts of three; with Ritsu accompanying them by hitting the snare drum in bursts of three to match their playing. Exactly four years later, Azusa would learn the song they were playing was _Murmaider _by _Dethklok. _The tail of how that song had been stored in her subconscious memory was a long one, much longer than Stephen King's _Dark Tower _series by far, but it wasn't worth going into to say the least.

It also worth noting that each of them were wearing black and gray makeup splattered across their faces to look like dirt, or like zombies. As Mio opened her mouth to begin the first verse, the scenery around Azusa changed instantly.

Now they were back in their club room, face paint gone, thick black eyeliner was not. Everything was as normal as normal could be, except Azusa was missing the skirt portion of her uniform, along with the stockings. Azusa pulled down on her dress shirt to cover her bright blue striped undies. Her shoes were also gone, which was more embarrassing than the lack of pants for some reason.

"Happy birthday!" Tsumugi cheered and placed a striped party hat on Yui's head. Yui cheered and waved her arms in excitement, screaming, "Hooray for me!"

"What did you all get me for presents?" Yui asked.

"Onee-chan, it's not polite to open presents before cake." Ui scolded her sister in the same lighthearted tone she always used. Azusa found it just a bit strange that Ui was wearing chainmail armor- with very small silvers chains- and had two glowing scimitars on her back. About a week after she learned the song they were playing, she learned that Ui was dressed as Drizz't Do'Urden from a book series by _R.A. Salvatore_. How she came across that information was an even longer story than the one about the song.

"But Ui, Ton-chan ate the cake, remember?" Yui said, and pointed that aquarium that the Light Music Club room sported. The tiny turtle waved a flipper at them; there were crumbs floating atop the surface.

Ritsu leaned over the table, and gave Yui a wide smile, "I got you what you've always wanted!"

"What's that?"

"The ability to be my doppelganger!" Ritsu replied, and handed Yui a yellow hairband. Yui pulled back her bangs and slipped it on. They were now completely identical in Azusa's eyes.

"What did you get me, Azu-nyan?" Yui turned, and asked the younger guitarist.

"I...I..." Azusa stammered, she hadn't had known it was Yui's birthday. There was nothing she could give her. She had her favorite guitar pick, a clear blue Fender heavy that was great for fast strumming, but that was in her skirt pocket...and her skirt was missing.

Yui placed her chin on the table, "You got me disappointment, thanks Azu-nyan..." Her tone wasn't exactly cheerful.

"I did have something for you, it just got stolen!" Azusa defensively replied, and her statement was half truth.

"No you didn't." Yui argued, "You spent all your money on a stuffed badger."

It was true, in Azusa's arms was stuffed badger, it's face was fixed in never ending growl, which really wasn't all that different from an alive badger. Damn growly hell beasts... Azusa gasped and held it out to Yui, "It's yours now!"

"Too late, it already has your scent. Its mother wont take it back." Yui sighed with a shake of her head. Azusa looked over to Ritsu's drumkit, sure enough was a stuffed mother badger with a look of disapproval on its face.

Tsumugi stepped forth with a pleasant grin, "I didn't get you a material gift, Yui-chan, but I got you something else."

"What is it!" Yui excitedly asked, practically bouncing off her seat.

"My heart." Tsumugi said, with tears of happiness forming in her eyes.

"What?" Azusa deadpanned.

"Mugi-chan..." Yui said, her voice barely above a whispered. She jumped out of her seat and leaped into Tsumugi's awaiting arms.

"Hold a second..." Azusa muttered towards them, she wasn't really sure what to say. Yui had jumped into Tsumugi's embrace, her legs were around the keyboardists waists, their faces only inches away, slowly closing the distance with their lips.

Azusa raised an arm to say something, but really wasn't sure what to say. Yui with Tsumugi was... unfathomable to be honest.

_And just why not? Are they not allowed to be happy? _Her own mental voice asked, just as she was awakening from that dream.

At first she was beyond confused at her surroundings. First off, this was definitely not her room. Second she was naked, she didn't sleep naked. Third, and most notably, Yui was in her arms...naked. For a brief second, she couldn't remember how she got there, and there were very few positive ways to end up sleeping naked with your best friend in a hotel.

Then she remembered everything. And gradually her heartbeat returned to its normal, healthy pace. But yet she was still unnerved by that image of Yui and Tsumugi holding each other like that. Again she had to ask herself, _why_? Two girls together like that? But they weren't really _together_, and in that sense, her and Yui were _much more _together at that moment. Azusa wasn't feeling that same emotional connection like she had been the previous night. Now she was horribly, _horribly_, embarrassed and remorseful about her situation. Her whole body was quivering, every nerve seemed to be on end as she held a sleeping Yui in her arms.

They weren't in the same sleeping position from the night before. Some how Yui had rolled over and was now cradled in Azusa's arms, with her own around the younger guitarists back. Azusa had her work cut out for her if she wanted to escaped this naked Yui hug unscathed; or at least without waking the other girl.

She pulled her arm out from under Yui, and sat up. The motel room was still unrelentingly cold, and her clothes were more than likely still wet. Anxiety filled her when she realized what the day was going to bring. Originally they had agreed to stay the night at a hotel anyways. So it was likely that Sawako and Ui had stayed in one as well. Probably a nicer one than that one at least. Azusa was not looking forward to the scolding she and Yui would receive from _everyone _they knew about this. But she took solace in the fact that no one would ever know about her and Yui sleeping together like that...unless Yui made it a point to tell everyone...which was a very realistic possibility.

Azusa quietly stood up off the bed and tried to figure out what to do next. Yui's newly bought hoodie stared up from the floor at her. It was still a little damp, but vestments like that were designed to resist the rain; and this one had served its purpose well. The werewolf graphic on it stared hungrily up at Azusa's naked body in a way that unnerved her. Even she was surprised when she found herself slipping it over her head. It was big on Yui, so it reached just below Azusa's lady bits, and covered her better than her shirt had in that dream.

What to do now, what the question. Azusa sat on the chair that had her towel from the night before, looking down on Yui's sleeping form. It was just after 7 o'clock, everyone else would be getting ready for school right about then. But instead they were sitting in this cheap motel; naked, lost, alone.

"Stupid rain..." Azusa muttered, wishing that her clothes had retained a state of dryness, or that she had her pajamas. Yui stirred a bit at her the noise, and shuffled the sheets so that she was cuddling up against a bundle of them like a teddy bear. Azusa instantly averted her gaze, since Yui had moved the sheets that had been covering chest.

_That's for Tsumugi-senpai anyways, _A sinister voice said from within her. Azusa shook her head, locks of black hair flowing back and forth frantically, and tried to block her dream out. Something about that scene still bothered her a lot. It left her with a bitter sense of loathing, and almost anger. Those were two emotions she couldn't imagine harboring towards Tsumugi-senpai, but yet here she was; and from a dream no less.

Azusa sighed and went to the bathroom to get away from seeing Yui like that. It brought about too many anxiety filled emotions. She relieved herself, washed her face, and debated for several minutes whether or not it was worth putting her hair up; she ultimately decided against it.

She opened the bathroom door to find Yui standing there, clothingly challenged.

"Yui-senpai, put something on!" Azusa shouted, and placed her hands up to cover up Yui's more intricate areas from her sight.

"You took my hoodie, and my clothes are in here." Yui sleepily replied, and yawned, "Mornin' Azu-nyan, sleep well last night."

"Not exactly." Azusa said under her breath, recalling her dreams.

"Me either, your snoring kept me up." Yui giggled.

"I don't snore!" Azusa instantly snapped back.

"It wasn't like an old person snoring, it was like cat sleeping." Yui clarified, Azusa somehow didn't feel much better. Her mind was screaming, _Don't say it! Don't say it! Don't say it!_ Yui said it.

"It was _so cute_!"

Azusa almost repeated rule number three from last night, but held her tongue. Saying that would have been more hypocritical than the Catholic Church mixed with the U.S. Army's slogan. _You're not allowed to call me cute, but I'm sure as hell allowed to hug, cuddle, and spoon you all night, man. That's because I'm the god damned Azu-nyan. _Azusa shook her head again, _I really need to get my mind out of the gutter this morning. Although that was a cute little rhyme I made._

"I'm sure it was." Azusa muttered to herself, and stepped past Yui, using one hand to prevent her peripheral vision from gorging on Yui's nakedness. She trusted her peripheral vision even less than her normal vision.

Azusa flopped on the bed on the floor, and sighed for the 100th time that morning. Once again her mind betrayed her, _I know why you were so reluctant to see Yui-senpai naked like that_, it said.

_Because seeing my friend naked, outside of a bathing scenario, isn't particularly high on my list of wants, _Azusa, getting annoyed by that traitorous voice, replied.

The voice was quick to make her situation more awkward, _You're jealous of Yui-senpai, aren't you? _

Azusa had no idea where that had come from, _What! No, why would I be jealous of her! N-not that there's anything wrong with her! She just doesn't have anything I really want! Not from her body at least, maybe some of her guitar techniques would be cool to have._

That evil voice chuckled again, and Azusa wondered why she was arguing with herself, _Of course you're jealous of her. Her boobs are bigger, her body is curvier, it's the body of a woman. You still have a little kid's body, no guy wants that. No normal guy at least, but I'm sure there are plenty of creepers who would love you._

Azusa made a note never to eat yakisoba before bed, it bred insanity the next morning, _That's not true, I have...boobs...too! Besides, it's not something I would worry about. I'm not interested in guys right now._

_ Then who are you interested in? _That voice, her voice (which it had really been the whole time), asked with condescending sarcasm.

_No one! _Azusa screamed inside her head, _The only thing I'm interested in is guitar playing. I don't care if Yui-senpai's curvy curves are curvier than mine! It doesn't matter, I'm just a late bloomer._

"Azu-nyan?" Yui called from across the room, Azusa jumped in surprise. To make matter worse, Yui was still neglecting her clothes.

"W-what!" Azusa stammered, a little more defensively than she had meant too.

"You were making funny faces at the ceiling." Yui told her. Azusa blushed four shades of red. So far this had been an...interesting morning.

"Sorry, Yui-senpai, my mind's somewhere else this morning." Azusa looked up and replied. Her eyes met Yui's, which was a safe zone. But somehow they managed to strafe downwards towards Yui's chest. _Oh god, I may as well be flat chested compared to her! And she's not even that big. You were right, condescending mind-voice, I do look like a little kid. _"Y-Yui-senpai, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, Azu-nyan." Yui replied, she turned the chair around and sat down on it so that she was leaning forward against its back. Like a scene from a cartoon, the back of the chair prevented her breasts from being exposed, while the towel covered that particular area between her legs. Azusa silently thanked the gods who worked their magic through towels.

Azusa couldn't stop herself from asking this flat out shallow and stupid question, "Y-Yui-senpai...am...I _pretty_? Not cute, not adorable, but...pretty like in a way that guys like?"

Yui gave her a wide eyed look and just blinked. Azusa cringed, but what other response should she have expected after asking a friend, _Hey, do you think I'm sexually attractive?_

"Why do you ask?" Was Yui's reply, which to Azusa was better than expected.

"N-no reason!" Azusa stammered, hoping to drop it. Asking something like that was stupid and childish to begin with.

"Azu-nyan, your nose is bleeding!" Yui gasped. Azusa tapped the spot below her nose, sure enough there was a dot of red on her finger. This morning still wasn't looking up.

**ELSEWHERE...**

The other members of the Light Music Club sat in silence at their club room before class started. There would a substitute that day, Sawako and the others were still in Tokyo. It had been a long rambly, tear filled phone call to Mio from Ui that had enlightened them on the whereabouts of their two guitarists; or more accurately the lack of whereabouts of those two guitarists.

"Has there been any word from them?" Mio asked, breaking the silence.

"Sawako called and said that Yui's cellphone number is listed as 'disconnected' now, which means her phone broke." Ritsu replied, "I can't imagine how Azusa's parents are handling the news."

"What if they ban her from playing with us!" Tsumugi asked, tears forming in her eyes at the thought of losing their youngest member.

"I bet this is Yui's fault..." Mio scoffed, "Azusa wouldn't even get lost like that. It had to be Yui."

"Don't say that about Yui-chan!" Ritsu snapped at Mio, loud enough to make Tsumugi flinch, "Tokyo is a big city, anyone could get lost. Don't you _dare _blame it all on Yui-chan!"

"Yes, Tokyo _is _a big city..." Mio agreed, but shook her head, "...which is another reason I blame Yui. Remember what happened when she got us lost in Kyoto?"

"Oh so it was _her _who got us lost?" Ritsu asked, her anger not very well concealed.

"_Yes_!" Mio shouted her in her face, "And what did she do? She called Azusa, who wasn't there. You were the one who had to go and ask for directions."

"What about Nadoka-chan?" Ritsu pointed out, there was smug grin on her face.

"What about her?"

"She got lost too." Ritsu reminded her, "Does that make her an air head too? A ditzy little girl? Did she call a Junior from here too, when she should have been asking for directions?"

"Shut up." Mio growled, not even remotely in the mood to argue this. She _knew _it had been Yui that had gotten the two of them lost. The little airhead had probably wandered down the wrong street after a cat, or something stupid like that. Azusa wouldn't get them lost overnight.

"Is that all you have to say?" Ritsu asked, with a sarcastic laugh. The laugh came out uncharacteristically nasally for her. That was because she had been developing a head cold that week, and it was now at full force. Several used napkins were scattered around her to punctuate that point.

"Why are you instigating, Ritsu?" Mio replied in her same angry tone.

"Because you're putting all the blame on Yui-chan, that's not cool!" Ritsu shouted at her, "If anything goes wrong, you instantly blame her! It's always been like that!"

"_Stop it_!" Tsumugi screamed at them. The keyboardist had had enough with their arguing. This wasn't their cute little bickering about copying homework; this was a fists-are-about-to-start-flying screaming match between them, "Our friends are lost in a big city and all you two can do is bicker like little children about whose fault it was! I'm disgusted in both of you!"

There was stunned silence between Ritsu and Mio. Tsumugi had never _ever _spoken in that tone, or used those kinds of words. She had certainly been upset before, but she seemed downright enraged now. Ritsu didn't take it as seriously as she probably should have, she didn't notice just how seething made both Mio _and _Mugi were.

"Mio started it. If she didn't always put so much blame on other people, then we wouldn't have had this argument. It's a character flaw she really needs to work on, it makes her a bad person. I'll accept your silent apology as of now." Ritsu snorted, and raised her head nose in arrogance. She glanced her over at Mio with a playful grin on her face, eagerly awaiting Mio's angry retort. Her eyes widened just as something impacted against her nose with the force of a brick.

"Ricchan!" Tsumugi screamed, as the drummer flew backwards out of her seat onto the floor. Mio was standing over where Ritsu had been sitting, her fist was still outstretched, a look of shock was on her face, like she was surprised at what she had done. She lowered her trembling fist and looked down at the victim of her violent outburst.

"You...you..." Ritsu stammered in surprise. Mio had hit, slapped, punched, kicked, and even occasionally bitten Ritsu for more fickle reasons; but never had she hit her with that much force. Blood streamed down from her nostrils to the top of her lips in a deep crimson line. "You..._bitch!_" She screamed through gritted teeth, and tears of anger and hurt shock. Tsumugi and Mio both expected Ritsu to stand up and hit Mio back; Mio even mentally prepared herself for the oncoming attack.

Instead, Ritsu stood up and looked at Tsumugi, tears were now flowing freely down her face, "Tsumugi...tell Nadoka-chan that I'll be late for class. I need to go the nurse's office..."

"Ricchan..." Was all Tsumugi managed to say, the sight of Ritsu's blood was making her dizzy. Ritsu turned to Tsumugi, and did the unthinkable. Ritsu..._sneezed_.

A large, thick, gooey mixture of blood and snot shot from her nose and mouth, and splattered against the front of Tsumugi's school uniform. Tsumugi jumped back and screamed, that was disgusting, frightening, unexpected, and nauseating all at the same time. It left a splatter of dark red, almost black, with various streams of orange and yellow against her chest.

Ritsu fell forward, and cried out briefly from the pain. The force of the sneeze, mixed with her already hurt nose, lead to an explosion of pain in her face. That pain gave her a phobia of sneezing that day out.

"Ritsu, are you okay?" Mio crouched down, and frantically asked. She placed a hand on her shoulder, but Ritsu instantly slapped it away.

"Don't touch me, this is your fault!" Ritsu hissed, and wiped the blood from her face onto the back of her sleeve. Mio felt herself begin to cry a little as Ritsu stomped off. She turned to Tsumugi, who was just standing there, mouth agape, and spoke.

"Tsumugi-san, I didn't mean to hit her like that!" Mio desperately cried to her last remaining band member in the room, "You know that right! I just couldn't take her insulting me like that, but I didn't mean to hurt her!"

"I don't know Mio-chan, I just don't know." Tsumugi whispered, and went off to find a napkin, or towel...or just a full change of clothes.

**YUI'S SUPER IMPORTANT MISSION**

As she was crossing the street, Yui noticed that there was a local used music store next to the thrift shop. Loud music was coming from it, and a variety of used guitars were on display in the window. Yui briefly glanced at them, but steeled her nerves against their temptations. She would never cheat on Gitah, even if there was no way he would ever find out.

With Azusa's shirt and pants size memorized, Yui stepped into the thrift store to find a set of suitable clothes for her friend. The place looked like it had been stripped of anything of real value, and what was left looked like it could have sparked a music genre twenty years ago if the place had been in Seattle.

"Need any help finding anything?" A woman with dyed purple hair, and lots of tattoos, asked from behind the counter.

"Kind of, do you have anything in this size?" Yui asked and showed the woman the paper that Azusa had written her measurements down on.

"Maybe, we're moving everything to a different store, so I don't know what's left." She replied. Yui read her nametag, it read "Celia 'Gaz' Brown", which was certainly a strange name. "Let me see what's laying around."

"Sure thing...Gaz." Yui said, and walked off to go browse the sundries the store held. On her way to browsing, she bumped into someone else.

"Oh, sorry!" The woman she had bumped into yelped in surprise. It was another employee, one who was sweeping the floor. Her nametag said, "Alice Brown".

"My fault." Yui said with a bow, and scratched the back of her head, "Oh hey, are you and that other girl sisters or something? You don't look alike though." This Alice was much shorter with blonde hair and even more tattoos.

"Oh no, we're married." Alice replied, and went back to sweeping. Yui blinked in surprise, they were..._married_? Part of her thought that was just a joke they were playing on customers or something. They couldn't be married, could they? Girls married boys, not other girls...well at least that was what she was always told. Yui decided that she would ask Azu-nyan when she got back. Azu-nyan sure was smart.

"Hey, this is all I could find!" Celia called, and waved her over, "There really isn't much in stock left."

Yui skipped over and looked at what Celia had picked out. A blue and black _Megadeth _t-shirt with the graphic for the album _United Abominations _on the front -of course, Yui didn't know it's name- and a pair of black jeans. Yui had also found some undergarments that would fit her clotheless friend as well.

"Well it's only temporary, so I don't think Azu-nyan will mind." Yui said to herself and pulled out her purse. 3000 yen certainly wasn't a bad price either.

She waved goodbye and stepped out into the street again. Yui smiled to herself for being a smart shopper, this meant she definitely had time leftover to go visit that music store and just...look around. Definitely not to spend money, that would be counter productive.

**BACK AT BASE...**

Azusa briefly considered putting her old wet clothes on, but as soon a her cold wet panties touched her skin, she decided against it. So, all there was left to do was lounge around her hotel room while naked. It was times like these where she desperately missed her guitar, music was a great way to calm the nerves.

She traced the course of her upset mind back to its source, seeing her senpai naked like that. It wasn't seeing her while bathing, this time she was completely dry, and unobstructed by soap and conversation. Natural curiosity took over when she saw Yui, and that was quickly followed by shame. At least Yui was now fully clothed, but had taken her hoodie back. Leaving Azusa without any sort of cover.

Azusa bundled up with the bed sheets and browsed TV channels, this would get her mind off of Yui-senpai's morning nakedness. She found an anime to watch, that would easily clear her mind.

"I wonder what this is?" She asked herself, and tapped the TV guide button. _Strawberry Panic _was apparently the name. Azusa gasped when she saw what was going on in the show. She quickly turned off the TV and buried her head in sheets. As if her tormented mind needed to watch girls kissing. The sound of Yui coming back in relieved her, at least Yui would have something else to talk about.

"Hiya Azu-nyan!" Yui said, and waved, "I gotcha some clothes!"

Azusa poked her head out from where she was hiding and saw that Yui-senpai was carrying several bags. _Oh no, what did she buy_. "H-hi, Yui-senpai."

"I wonder what's on TV..." Yui said to herself, as easily distracted as ever, and picked up the remote.

Azusa was about to stop her when the lights went out with a hollow, _Pewww..._. Yui dropped the remote and sighed loudly in the darkness, "Aww, the power's out."

"Well, we were about to leave anyways." Azusa reminded her, and took the darkness as an opportunity to climb out of her sheet cocoon. Luckily, the shades were cast down and she was only a silhouette to Yui.

"Hey, Azu-nyan, can I ask you a question?" Yui asked. Azusa silently thanked whatever spirit was guiding her for letting Yui stray conversation away from the events of last night and the morning. _Why yes Yui-senpai, ask me anything about anything. Make it something like, "What do you think of that new car that just came out?", "Don't Mugi-chan's eyebrows look like little caterpillars making love to her forehead?" Anything to get my mind off of the image of you being naked._

"Sure, Yui-senpai." Azusa cheerfully replied.

"Is it normal for girls to marry other girls?" Yui asked her. Azusa's face went pale, and she fell back onto the bed on the ground. _Really? I mean REALLY!_ _Well that certainly doesn't take my mind off of you. Oh please let this be completely unrelated to this morning..._

"W-why do you ask?" Azusa stuttered, answering her question with one of her own.

"Two girls at that store were married, and I haven't ever seen that before." Yui admitted, "Is that normal though? I didn't think you could do that."

"I...I guess that's...sort of normal, maybe not around here." Azusa replied, barely above a whisper, "I think liking another girl like that is kind of weird, don't you?" _Oh please say yes, please say yes..._

Yui just shrugged, "I dunno, I never really thought about it. If both parties show interest, then I don't see the problem. I actually think Mugi-chan said the same thing..."

Azusa was shocked by Yui's open minded view. In hindsight she didn't know why she was so shocked, Yui wasn't exactly a close minded person. She didn't really know what to expect from a question like that from Yui. Without thinking, she blurted out, "What if only one side shows interest? What happens then?"

Yui thought for a moment, apparently not surprised by that question, "I guess it would be sad for the girl who loves the other one, right? Even if you think it's weird, wouldn't it be sad if you loved someone who didn't love you back?"

"Yeah..." Azusa muttered, now she was completely full of food for thought; very little of it was relaxing. She took a deep breath, and spoke, barely even a whisper, "Yui-senpai, are you trying to tell me something?"

"Yeah!" Yui cheered, Azusa felt her heart stop, "I got you clothes!"

"R-right..." Azusa gasped, that was not what she had meant. Yui showed her the new shirt and pants, along with panties and bras. "I guess I can wear this, even if it's weird, but what's all that other stuff you got?"

"Oh this stuff?" Yui rhetorically asked, as she picked up her other bags, "All kinds of cool stuff, I got a portable CD player with album by that band we saw yesterday, some batteries for it, some stickers with cake on them, scratch and sniff of course, a pack of guitar picks, and some rainbow striped socks with individual toes. Oh yeah, I also stopped at a convenience store and bought some snacks too!"

"How much money do you have left?" Azusa asked in a grim tone.

"About 200 yen, why?" Yui replied with a blank expression of her face.

"I only have enough money for one train ticket halfway home!" Azusa shouted at her, "Now what do we do!"

"It'll work out fine, next time you should budget better." Yui scolded, _actually scolded_.

Azusa felt her fingers creeping towards Yui' throat as she screamed back, "I spent all my money on dinner last night, and this motel room!"

Yui noticed that Azusa's breathing had quickened into angry bursts, and even in the dim light, her face was fuming a bright red. The older guitarist briefly realized, _Okay, maybe I could have thought __my shopping trip a bit better. _But as always, she refused to let that get to her. However, it was definitely getting Azusa, which was not okay in Yui's agenda, (which was filled up mostly with guitar playing and tea time, with the occasional bathroom break. In other words, it was the three "ee's"- glee, tea, and pee). So Yui was quick to step in.

"Don't worry, Azu-nyan..." Yui said, and wrapped her arms around Azusa in a friendly hug, "We'll figure this out, and we'll be home safe and sound."

Yui's words fell on deaf ears, Azusa was too bothered by the fact that Yui hadn't waited for her to put on clothes before hugging her, to pay attention. She was in her standard Yui-hug position, attacking from the the side. Except this time, Azusa was without clothes, and Yui's arm was right across Azusa's chest. To make matters worse, Yui had taken off her hoodie at the door, leaving her arms bare.

To Azusa, her bones felt like jelly as she slithered out of Yui's grasp and laid back down, hoping that Yui's eyes hadn't had adjusted to the dim light. She was still trying to recover from that sudden burst of her senses from Yui hugging her. _Don't you know what you're doing to my brain, Yui-senpai? No, of course you don't. This isn't anything new to you. Why can't you just behave like a normal person!_

Azusa knew the answer though. No one would love Yui the same way if she behaved normally. Yui's eccentric behavior is what attracted people to her, for better and for worse.

"This is nice..." Yui dreamily sighed and flopped down next to Azusa. The younger guitarist watched Yui kick her shoes off and wiggle her toes, letting them stretch out from being cooped up in the confines of her shoes. Azusa thought it was cute, but found herself blushing at that thought. "...don't you think so, Azu-nyan?"

"Huh, what?" Azusa replied, and blinked a few times. If Yui was talking to her, she hadn't been listening.

"I said, wouldn't it be nice if we could just stay here all day?" Yui asked, staring happily at the ceiling, "It's really... _chill_."

"No, I want to go home." Azusa pouted, "But what are we supposed to do, we're nearly out of money."

"Let's run away forever." Yui suggested, and rolled over so she was was facing Azusa. She took Azusa's hand in hers, and laced their fingers like she had done the previous night, "Wouldn't it be fun? Just keep running forever, we could get by with playing in our band, the _AzuYui Project_, and every day would be an adventure. We could go anywhere we wanted, even the lost city of Rhode Island!"

Azusa felt herself frowning for a moment, but then smiling at that romantic concept. Of course, it wouldn't work, reality was a bitch; but it was something pleasant to dream about, "Wouldn't you miss your friends and family though?"

"We could bring Ui and the rest with us." Yui replied, that smile full of dreams still on her face, "Then just run forever."

That smile Yui had on her face disarmed all of Azusa's desires to go home. All of a sudden she _did _want to run away with Yui, and, more or less, the others. Just run hand in hand, with their guitars on their backs, to the next adventure life had for them, _utter freedom_. Instead, she would be home soon, then back to school, to college, get married, have kids, be successful...be happy? Yui was unintentionally changing Azusa's understanding of happiness, "It doesn't work that way, Yui-senpai."

"I know..." Yui sighed, it actually looked like a mournful sigh from her. Like she knew that her childhood dreams would never be more than what they were. Reality liked to cut people down, Yui and Azusa were no exceptions and they both knew that. Real life was just around the corner, and they didn't have much time to prepare for it.

Azusa went to get up, but Yui stopped her by gripping her arm, "Can...can we just lay here some more?"

"Um, okay." Azusa replied, a bit taken back by Yui's request. _I'm making a promise to myself to not over think her request there._

"How many times has it been just us?" Yui asked as naked Azusa laid back down.

Azusa just shruged, "Plenty. I see you just about every day."

"No, I mean just me and you?" Yui clarified, "There was that time at summerfest, and that's all I can think of, and that was only for a few minutes."

"I guess." Azusa sort of agreed, they didn't really spend all that much time just one on one. Then again, they were part of a band, that was kind of the protocol. If she thought that car ride to Tokyo was bad, she could only imagine the hell of being a tour van with the five of them. Yui driving while trying to make conversation with Mio, Ritsu tapping her drumsticks against the band gear, Mugi singing along to the radio, and Azusa herself gritting her teeth against the noise.

"But I guess we should go check out and make our way down the road." Yui said and sat up, "Um, unless you want to stay here a bit longer, you look comfy."

Azusa realized that she actually was comfortable, she had been comfortable all morning in bed. She hadn't realized just how much of a luxury being naked was, outside of baths at least. Everything seemed softer to the touch, and every nerve was heightened. It wasn't until then that she realized how much she enjoyed that hour alone while Yui was gone, _Come to think of it, Yui-senpai was gone awhile._

"Hey, Yui-senpai, why were you gone so long earlier?" She had to ask.

Yui had a brief look of embarrassment on her face, but it quickly faded to her normal smile, "Oh, I, uh, got held up in traffic."

Azusa didn't believe that, both of those stores were adjacent. In reality Yui had gotten held up playing guitar with some other musicians at the music store, then singing _Beatles _songs with them. They had done a cover of _Megadeth's Symphony of Destruction _which had eaten up a good chuck of time too. Yui felt a little dirty for playing another guitar, but just messing around with another band was fun. The proprietor of the store, a guitarist/novelist under the name of _Oishi Chenso_, seemed like a pretty _chill_ guy. He invited her to go and play with them again some other time.

"Wait, I should shower first." Yui said to herself, before getting up and walking out of the room. Azusa didn't mind, it gave her time to just sit and relax, especially after being on her feet all day yesterday. It wasn't before long that Azusa heard water flowing from the other room, and Yui began singing.

_We really should let Yui-senpai sing more, she has more energy and spirit than Mio-senpai does, _Azusa thought as she listened to Yui carry on, then she realized _what _Yui was singing. A _Beatles _song, _Don't Let Me Down_, something she had never heard Yui sing, or even mention, or show that she had knowledge of the song's existence. Now here she was, shamelessly singing this classic love song.

Something struck Azusa's heart and mind like an emotional brick, everything that had happened in the last 12 hours; not just then, but the entire duration that she knew Yui. The _hundreds _of hugs, the constant touching, all the times Yui had called her cute, the time Yui had _tried to kiss her_, more hugs, the way Yui kissed her hand the previous night, asking about lesbian marriage, what she said about that too, now she was singing this love song. Azusa now fully realized what was going on...

"Hirasawa Yui is in love with me..." Azusa said to the shadows, to herself, and to fully come to terms with it, and whatever that might bring. She couldn't think of any other reason for all those events when you put them together like that.

Since there were no lights that worked, Yui was forced to bathe in the dark. She used this as an opportunity to let her imagination just run wild. Air guitar in hand, she sang the lyrics to that song she had sung with those guys at the music store, and played the guitar part; completely oblivious to the messages she was sending to Azusa.

After showering, she would pitch her plan to get home to Azu-nyan. They could use that money she had left to get a taxi for both of them. Take the taxi to a police station, and let the police get a hold of Sawa-chan, then they could go home and laugh about all of this. That was being a good senpai, coming up with plans like that to get them home.

When she got dried and clothed, she found Azusa all dressed up, and eying her suspiciously, "Everything okay, Azu-nyan?"

"Y-yeah." Azusa quickly replied, and avoided making eye contact. Yui then pitched her idea about getting home, or at least in contact with someone. Azusa had to admit it was actually a pretty sound plan, relatively foolproof to be honest.

They checked out, and Yui took a moment to go use the bathroom there one more time before setting out into the world. This let Azusa sit in a comfy chair in the lobby and think over how to deal with Yui being in love with her.

_First off, I better not directly confront her about it; that could make her open up all her feelings or something like that; I've seen it in movies before. But what do I do if she "makes a move"? I could always slap her again, but that sounds mean and I would feel bad about it. I guess I would have to let her down gently. The last thing I want to do is hurt her, but I don't really want to "be with her" either. I think I should just play it safe for now, act like I know nothing. _

_ OR..._ Another voice in her mind spoke up, and showed another argument, ..._OR, you could just end this as quick;y as possible. Your other idea would have Yui-senpai slowly and slowly falling more and more in love with you. That's bad, it'll make it impossible to let her down easy. What you SHOULD do is play the role of the flirt. Just go along with it for now, make Yui-senpai act faster, then you can put a stop to it faster. It may sound a bit manipulative, but it will be easier on her heart._

Then those two voices spoke in unison, _But above all else- Keep your friendship in tact._

Azusa was actually leaning more towards the harsher idea. She didn't know how to be "flirty", but if it meant not hurting her senpai, then it was the way to go. The thought of Yui-senpai falling completely in love with her was frightening, and it was a battle she didn't want to fight. So the safest option was to provoke an action out of Yui-senpai as quick as possible; so she could quell it as fast as she could. That made her feel like a succubus though, but Azusa knew it was for the greater good.

It never occurred to her that Yui may not have actually be in love with her; or that she was being paranoid. Or that she could have just offhandedly say that she was not interested in any sort of relationship with either gender whatsoever. There were dozens of other options she didn't explore, nearly all of them were much more sensible too.

"Ready to go, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked as she stepped out of the bathroom, she kicked the a strand of toilet paper off the bottom of her shoe. That was the first time Azusa saw someone do that in real life.

"Yeah." Azusa replied with an overly cheery grin and smile. A normal person would have found that just downright creepy, but it suited Yui well.

"You look really happy, I'm glad for you!" Yui remarked, "Oh, can we say goodbye to the people at the music store, they were really nice."

"Sure!" Azusa said in that creepy, overly cheerful voice again. _Okay, you better stop that before Yui starts staying an inch or two out of kicking distance._

As they crossed the empty street, Azusa took the first step on her evil road. She grasped Yui's hand in hers, _willingly._

"Oh!" Yui gasped in surprise, that was the first time that Azusa had willing done something like that. It certainly wasn't unwelcome though, Azusa's attitude altogether seemed much brighter.

Azusa could understand why Yui had spent so much time in that music store, it had a massive selection of used instruments of every kind. And the owners let people play them at their leisure. Yui was chatting away with one of the employees, a guy with long brown hair, glasses, and some scruff for facial hair. From where she was standing, Azusa could catch the gist of their conversation- Guitar stuff.

"If you're ever in town again, feel free to stop by and play with us again." Azusa heard him say. She could also hear him playing _Number of the Beast _on an unplugged electric guitar. _Psh, I could totally play that, stop trying to impress Yui-senpai._

"I'll do that, but I don't live anywhere near here." Yui replied, "In fact, we're kind of stuck here."

"Let me guess, no money? No job? No means of transportation?" He asked, "Yeah I've been there. I got stuck in _Kansas _with some buddies back after school, we were working tables for a month before we could get the money to get our van fixed. There were literally no gigs we could play to get out."

"Wow, Oishi, that sounds rough." Yui said, "We're going to go to the police station and see if they can help us."

"No, no, no, you don't wanna go there." The guy said with a wave of his arms, Azusa butted in to their conversation then.

"And why not? It's better than working tables for a month." Azusa had to ask.

"Because you're both teenage girls." He said with hint of arrogance, like _duh, how could you not have realized that?_ "You'd be beyond easy to bust for possession, or public intoxication or something. I've seen it plenty of times."

"Too bad we're not carrying _drugs_ or _alcohol_." Azusa retorted, disgusted at the very thought.

"It's up to the cops if you're carrying or not. They have to fill their quota somehow." Oishi said with a shake of his head.

"Now you're being ridiculous." Azusa deadpanned.

"How far away are you two from home anyways?" He turned and asked Yui. Yui gave him a vague idea of where they lived, "No shit? I work graveyard and my shift's ending, my off day is tomorrow so I was going up to that same city to chill with some guys. I can totally give you a ride!"

"No!" Azusa instantly cried, with a stomp of her foot, "Yui-senpai, we need to find some real authorities to get us home."

"Why?" Oishi asked, seeming legitimately confused, "Listen imouto-"

"Don't call me that, I'm Nakano Azusa!"

"Right, Nakano Azusa-_sama_, anyways..." He continued, drawing out "sama" over several seconds, and looking positively annoyed, "...stop bitching, I'm trying to fucking help you. Listen, the cops will have you sit in a room surrounded by all these other people trying to file police reports. You'll be there for hours before you can even go up and tell them what's up. Then you'll have to wait even longer for them to begin to do anything about it. It'll be the end of the weekend before you're home. _Or _you can ride with me, and be home in not even three hours."

Azusa didn't want this guys help, he seemed like a total bum. Worse, he seemed like the embodiment of what happened when you didn't make it as a musician, but didn't join normal society. She looked at Yui, who was completely fascinated by this high school dropout. A sickening thought filled her brain, _What if Yui tries too hard to make it as a guitarist, and ends up like this!_

"What do you think, Azu-nyan?" Yui turned and asked, "What if he's right about the police?"

"I am right." He interjected.

"I don't know..." Azusa groaned, and stared at the floor, "Wait, is the power out here too?"

Sure enough there wasn't any music in the background, and the places was dim as well, and not just dim like other music stores.

"Fucking is." Oishi said, "It's out all over Tokyo, and even in some other towns. People are saying it was a terrorist act, that some crazy radicals did it as a protest. The police station is probably totally filled up by now with people complaining about it."

"S-seriously?" Yui and Azusa stammered in unison.

"Then maybe we should ride with you..." Yui said, still thinking it over.

"Maybe..." Azusa finally agreed, "Only if you promise not to drive fast, or do anything dangerous!"

"_Chillax _imouto, I know how to fucking drive." Oishi sighed, "I'll get you there, just let me throw my guitar and amp in the truck..."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

Ack, this ended up so much longer than I meant it too. I didn't mean to have Azusa ramble on about Yui for so long, but I didn't have the heart to shorten it.

I _am _going somewhere with the side plot with other band members. Like I said, I enjoy adding juicy conflict like that, but it's not completely senseless. Just trust me on this.

Next time we see- Yui learns a new song, rolling blackouts, Azusa gets _really _paranoid about her senpai's sexual interests, the journey home continues on foot.


	6. The AzuYui Project Hits The Road

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 6- THE AZUYUI PROJECT HITS THE ROAD**

Considering I haven't even had the chance to upload chapter 5, there's really nothing much to say, is there? Well besides the fact that I probably could have had this one up with 5 if I had worked harder. But every time I went to get to my laptop, I would see my guitar laying against the bed and I would _have _to play it.

A quick shout out to everyone who left reviews. Those are what keep me going, and I really appreciate the amount of effort in them; no "It was good" kind of ones yet.

Speaking of quality. At some later date I may go and rewrite the first two chapters. Not to sound all egotistical, but they're crap compared to what I'm capable of. I didn't really write them in the spirits of the characters, and could probably improve them all around. Chapter 3 may be zany, but I love it and will keep it as is.

**9:36 AM**

Azusa was surprised to find that their driver hadn't lied about what he said earlier. The whole city had blacked out, and the radio reports were saying that a lot of the outlying communities were powerless as well.

"...Sources are starting to confirm the rumors of ecoterrorism and-" The radio was turned off before the woman could finish.

"I was listening to that!" Azusa cried from the back seat of the cramped sedan they were in. Oishi had said "truck", not cramped little car with nearly everything he owned shoved into the back seat.

"Ecoterrorism; brutal." Was his reply, "Because of this little development, it looks like I have some bad news for you two. Traffic lights are probably out, so we're gonna have to take the back roads. This way we don't end up dying."

"Traffic lights are solar powered." Azusa told him.

"There's still going to be traffic everywhere." He replied, "I happen to dislike traffic."

"Then why do you live in a metropolis?"

"Because of the job opportunities, something your little high school brain doesn't know about it. Real life is kind of a bitch."

Yui sat there uncomfortably, and listened to the two go at it. It had been like this for the last twenty minutes since they left, and the ten minutes before that. Oishi would say something, Azusa would say how she disagreed with him, the he would defend himself and usually call her something along the lines of a "naive child".

Occasionally, Yui attempted to mediate, but she wasn't a very good mediator. The only option that seemed realistic, was straying conversation away from things they could argue about. _Was it Ui who once told me it's a good idea to talk to people about things they liked?_

"Hey, Oishi, can you teach me how to play that one song you were playing before we left?" Yui asked, hoping this would stop their bickering.

"While driving?" Azusa said from behind her.

"Yes while driving!" Oishi shouted back at her, Azusa flinched at away at him. She really wasn't enjoying this trip. The police would have been a much better option; but what was only a few more hours of this horrible trip?

"Anyways," He began, "It's pretty simple, it's just five five five four five five five five seven five five seven five five seven. Repeat, then after playing that four times you go up the the third fret instead the fifth and play that sequence once up there."

"Because that makes sense..." Azusa muttered, not impressed in the slightest. The car lurched to the right a bit as Oishi reached back and grabbed his guitar case, and handed it to Yui.

"Try it." He told Yui. Yui unzipped the case, and took the guitar out. It was a scratched up red and white Fender from some brand that probably didn't make guitars anymore. Yui had to sit an awkward position to play guitar while riding in a car. The headstock was only inches away from Azusa's face.

Sure enough, she started playing it based on the series of numbers she had been given.

"There you go, not bad!" Oishi complimented. Yui smiled and played the Final Fantasy victory theme in celebration, then for the next few minutes she played the tune for the spoils screen over and over again.

"Play something for us, Azu-nyan!" Yui said, and awkwardly passed Azusa the guitar.

_Now it's my time to shine_, Azusa thought with a smile on her face. Her piece of choice- _More Than A Feeling _by _Boston_. The tempo at the very beginning was a bit off, but she quickly corrected herself as her fingers worked without thinking. She nailed the chorus perfectly, getting all the palm mutes just right, and every note came out clean and shiny.

"_Boston _sucks!" Oishi shouted back at her, "Play _Freebird_!"

Azusa said nothing, she just shoved the stupid fucking guitar back in its stupid fucking case. She didn't know what this guy's problem was with her, but so far this had been the worst leg of their journey home. The ride their had been a bit nerve wracking, the concert had melted her brain, the rain had been cold, the hotel had been awkward, the morning even more so; but no one had been calling her names until now.

Why Yui was letting this slide was beyond Azusa, and it was extremely disheartening. Her senpai had been completely silent, besides asking few questions to both them here and there. The constant stream of insults and name calling had reminded her cruelly of primary school bullies that had made school hell for her. _It looks like primary school never ends..._

"Oh, I need to stop for gas!" Their driver said when they were about an hour out of the city, another three to go. Probably less, since he insisted on going about 90km, this. Azusa figured they were at the half way mark, this had been where Yui stopped them for snacks. He parked the car at a roadside station that seemed to be attracting a lot of business. They were oblivious to Sawako and Ui passing them out on their way in.

"Can I sit in the back with Azu-nyan?" Yui asked as he was stepping out to go pay inside, "She looks lonely."

"Go for it." He shrugged and went to go pay.

"If you can make room." Azusa said after he was gone, there was hardly room for just her back there. Yui carelessly shoved all his stuff aside and made just enough room to sit in the middle portion of the see. Half of her was on top on Azusa.

"I think this is legal." Yui said to herself, and shifted as much as she could so she was wasn't crushing Azu-nyan.

"Hold on, I need to go the restroom." Azusa said, and opened the door. The compacted _AzuYui Project _spilled out onto the pavement below. Azusa brushed herself off and marched towards the ladies room. She noticed that Yui was right behind her. "Yes, Yui-senpai?"

"I wanted to go in there to fix my hair, and wash my hands. That guitar made me feel unclean. The strings had a solid layer of dirt on them!" Yui replied.

"The restroom is only meant for one person." Azusa told her, looking unamused.

Yui, who was used to sharing the restroom with her sister at home in the morning, didn't see the problem with this, "So?"

"So!" Azusa had to refrain from shouting, "It means only one of us goes in there at a time!"

"Oh." Yui said, almost looking surprised.

Azusa shook her head, and went inside to relieve herself. She read the graffiti on the walls to keep herself occupied, but there wasn't anything really interesting. Except for one, "Save Russian Jews, win valuable prizes". Certainly the male restrooms had better graffiti.

As she was standing up to leave, an interesting thought popped into her mind, _Just why DID Yui-senpai want to go in here with me? _This time Azusa didn't have an answer to that. She hoped it was just...but she didn't know what she hoped it was. _What if Yui-senpai has a...fetish! Oh god!_

She slipped out of the restroom and found Yui waiting for her on the curb. _What if she was sitting there to listen in on me... Oh now I'm just being silly, but still- What if!_

"Heyuh, Azu-nyan, I'm gonna go wash my hands now. Is the power on in there?" Yui asked and stepped past her.

"N-no!" Azusa cried out defensively and waved her arms to fend off any attack. Then she had to stop and think over just why she had done that. Luckily, Yui had payed no attention to her arm flailing. She shook her head and decided she was thirsty, that was something worth focusing her attention on. Despite their monetary issues, Azusa felt she had enough money to go buy some tea at the gas station's convenience store.

However, there was neon sign that flashed, "closed" in bright purple letters. That was strange, the whole place had been bustling just a few moments ago. Now there were only a couple cars left, and all the gas pumps were self-serve. She saw someone crossing the lot in an employees uniform.

"Why did you close up, is everything alright?" Azusa asked him.

"We're too understaffed to deal with this." The cashier told her, "It's like a fucking zombie apocalypse."

"What its?"

"The blackout, people are coming here in droves; we have to turn them away now." He explained to her, "There was like a dozen cases of shoplifting just this morning. We can't handle this, so we're just shutting down."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Azusa replied, then went to go find Yui. She turned the corner to where the restrooms were at the side of the gas station. As she was turning the corner, Azusa spread her arms outward in a well needed stretch after being cooped up in that car. Her stretched out left hand went rogue, and pressed into something soft. _It was just Yui-senpai, I was worried for a moment. Wait, what part of Yui-senpai am I touching, it's really...s-soft and squishy...What have I done? I'll never be married now!_

"Hiya Azu-nyan!" Yui said with a happy grin and wave. Azusa was frozen in embarrassment, her hand had accidentally pressed into her senpai's chest. "Are you okay, Azu-nyan? You look like you saw one of the horsemen of the apocalypse."

Azusa quickly removed her hand from Yui, and was completely dumbfounded by her reaction to that. She imagined that a normal girl would cry out, or slap someone who did that to them. It was like Yui didn't even notice. Azusa decided that she was _not _going to even think about this one. There were way too many bad things that would come with that.

"Hey, where did Oishi go?" Yui stepped past her and asked. Azusa turned around and saw that his car was gone. Along with all but one other car. All of a sudden the world felt very still, the wind was the only sound noticeable sound. No cars were driving by, nothing moved.

"He...left us here." Azusa said in completely disbelief.

"Why would he do that?" Yui asked, Azusa could see how betrayed she looked. She had gone against Azusa's protests and gone along with this guy, only to be left here in the middle of nowhere. This place was nearly at the halfway point home, either way was lengthy to say the least.

"There has to be reason for him doing that." Azusa answered, trying not to be a pessimist right away, "Maybe he left without realizing that we weren't in the backseat. We did get out without saying anything."

"That has to be it." Yui said adamantly, and began walking towards the road.

"Where are you going, Yui-senpai?" Azusa called out.

Yui turned around, and smiled while walking backwards, "What's the point in waiting here? Let's keep walking down the road, he'll see us on his way back."

"And that way we're not just sitting around too." Azusa agreed, "Good thinking Yui-senpai, let's get going then. This way we'll kill time."

**NOT QUITE A BETRAYAL**

No, Oishi Chenso had not left them behind intentionally. He had hopped into his car without thinking and drove for a little while before even realizing he was alone. By that time, he was already ten kilometers down the road. So, he turned around to go retrieve the two girls.

That endeavor quickly failed. A police officer didn't quite like the fact that he was driving without a license in an unregistered vehicle; and his pleas were unheard by the law enforcer.

**MARCHING ON**

"Private Azu-nyan, use your binoculars to scout ahead." Sergeant Yui-chan ordered her subordinate.

"Not now, Yui-senpai." Azusa sighed, after thirty minutes of walking, she was starting to give up hope of rescue.

"Mission log, entry seventeen- My troops are demoralized, and there is no sign of rescue." Yui said into her hand, "Luckily, so sign of the enemy either. I am currently left with half a clip for my M16A4 and no ammo for my M9 sidearm. Private Azu-nyan, how are you holding up on ammo?"

"None." Azusa said, and pulled her pockets inside out to emphasize her point.

"My troops are famished as well it looks like. I also left all my provisions on the helicopter that left." Yui went on.

"Wait, you left all the things you bought in the car, didn't you!" Azusa gasped, "All that money went to waste didn't it!"

"This is also demoralizing my soldiers." Yui said to her hand-recording device, "That's right Private Azu-nyan. All our provisions have been left behind, and I left my purse at the music store. All your months of commando training kick in now, soldier!"

"Yui-senpai, I'm really not in the mood." Azusa grumbled, she wasn't in the mood to fight about it either.

"Hey Azu-nyan, why do you always call me 'Yui-senpai'?" Yui asked her.

Azusa was taken back by the question, "Because you're my senpai, that's why."

"I know, I know, but it sounds too formal." Yui replied, "You can't call me Yui-senpai in front of our fans when we start the _AzuYui Project_."

"I'm the president of the _AzuYui Project_, I can call you whatever I want." Azusa pointed out, "But if you don't want to be called Yui-senpai, what should I call you? Hirasawa-san?"

"That's even worse!" Yui cried, "Can't you call me what everyone else calls me?"

"No, I'm not everyone else." Azusa argued, "I've been calling you Yui-senpai too long to change now."

"What if I started calling you by a different name?" Yui asked, looking like she was trying to provoke Azusa deeper into this 'argument', "How would that feel, _Nakano-san_?"

"It sounds very formal, _Hirasawa-san!_" Azusa replied with her hands at her side.

"Why thank you, _Nakano-san!_"

"You're very welcome, _Hirasawa-san_!"

"I know I am, I'm the one who did the music production for _Berserk _after all!"

"Yeah I know you- wait what?" Azusa said with a puzzled look on her face. Yui was just laughing. Soon her laughter became infectious and attacked Azusa. Within seconds they were walking down the side of the road with their arms over each others shoulders, laughing the entire way.

After nearly and hour and a half of walking, Yui pretending to be a soldier, more laughing, and idle conversation; a car _finally_ passed their way. Yui quickly gave it a thumbs up.

"What was that, Sergeant?" Azusa asked, she had finally given into Yui's game twenty minutes ago.

"Hitchhiking, Private Azu-nyan." Yui answered, "If you give them a thumbs up, then some times they'll let you ride with them."

"What if they're going to a different town?" Azusa asked her.

"Then you ride with them as far as you can to it." Yui shrugged, "I don't think Oishi is coming back, and it would take us the rest of the day, and most of tomorrow to get home by foot."

"Right..." Azusa muttered, and looked at the country side. Farmland as far as the eye could see, with mountains scraping the horizon. It sure was pretty, but she wasn't in the mood to enjoy it.

"You didn't like him at all, did you?" Yui asked with a gentle smile on her face. Azusa flinched back at such a direct question.

"It's not that I...Okay, I didn't like him at all." Azusa admitted, she was nearly growling by the end of her sentence.

"I tried to start conversations that wouldn't make you two argue." Yui said, "I really did."

"We weren't arguing." Azusa told her with a shake of her twin tails, "No, it wasn't arguing. He was just taking any chance he could to make fun of me. Just like those kids in primary school."

"Sorry, we should have just gone to authorities like you said." Yui sighed, "Wait, what about the kids in primary school?"

"Nothing!" Azusa said with a wave of her arms.

"Oh, I won't bring it up again then." Yui shrugged, "I had fun in primary school though. Nadoka-chan and me went on all sorts of adventures!"

"Kind of like this one?" Azusa asked.

"Heh, not quite." Yui laughed, "This is probably the closest thing to a _real _adventure I've ever done. I know you want to go home, but this is sort of exciting."

"I heard a quote once..." Azusa said, then thought for a moment so she wouldn't mess it up, "_In a society that has abolished all adventure; the only adventure left is to abolish that society_."

"Azu-nyan the anarchist." Yui giggled.

"Shut up!" Azusa shouted back at her. Another car passed, Yui threw her thumb up again. No luck.

"I would stop for two cute girls at the side of the road..." Yui pouted.

"You should be more modest, Yui-senpai." Azusa said with her arms crossed, "And I think that's a problem, people stopping for cute girls at the side of the road."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" Azusa replied, she didn't want to go more in depth into the subject of pedophiles and sex offenders with Yui.

"I don't see why stopping for cute girls is a bad thing, it makes it so they don't have to walk home." Yui said, sounding surprisingly serious, "Just driving by like that is rude."

"Yui-senpai..." Azusa sighed, and mentally prepared herself for the 'stranger danger' talk, "Look, there are certain people who don't have our best interests in mind. And suppose one of them stopped to pick us up..."

"You mean like a pedophile?" Yui asked like it was just casual conversation.

Azusa flinched, "Yes that! I mean no...yes...I don't know!"

"Don't worry Azu-nyan," Yui said, and placed a hand on Azusa's shoulder, "Your senpai will protect you from any questionable persons."

"Do you know self-defense of any kind?"

"No, but my batting average in junior high gym class was really good!" Yui excitedly replied. "I just have to find a suitable blunt object, then I would fight to my dying breath to protect you!"

Azusa found herself actually laughing at Yui's little speech, "I accept your pledge of service, Yui-sama. You are now an honorable Kensai."

"Kensai Yui is ready to defend you!" Yui said in her serious voice, then saluted her mistress. Azusa chuckled at this, then looked up at the sky. Judging by the sun in the sky, it was probably around one o'clock. She had learned to tell time by the sun's position a few years ago, it certainly came in handy.

"I'm starting to get really hungry." Azusa remarked, but all the snacks Yui had purchased were in the car.

"Me too." Yui groaned and clutched her stomach, "Yui-chan needs food badly."

"Look, Yui-senpai, peaches!" Azusa cheered and pointed at a peach tree conveniently growing at the side of the road.

"If only I had some wheat." Yui said to herself as she walked over to the peaches, "I could give thanks to Horo for this blessing."

"Shut up and have a peach." Azusa said, and picked one of the juicy fruits off the tree.

**THE AZUYUI RESCUE PROJECT  
4:45 PM**

Mio took a deep breath and prepared herself for what was to come next. Guilt was eating her alive after what she did to Ritsu. She had only meant it to be one of those kind of play punches she frequently threw; it's intent hadn't been malicious. Now it was time to apologize to the drummer, and find a way to do their part in finding Yui and Azusa. No blame this time, just an attempt at finding them.

First things first, Mio knocked on the front door of Ritsu's home. After several seconds, the door opened. It was her Ritsu's younger brother, "Oh hey, Mio-san."

"Good evening." Mio replied with a bow, "Is Ritsu home?" That was stupid question, she could hear drums from garage. Ritsu was home, and actively drumming away...Mio recognized that tune from somewhere.

"Yeah, but our parents are gone for the week. I don't know if we're allowed to have guests over." He told her.

Mio sighed, and thought for a moment of a way to get past this obstacle, "500 yen says you never knew I was here." With that, she handed him the corresponding amount of money.

"Thank you, Mio-san." Ritsu's brother said with a bow, then went back to the video game he was playing. Mio made her way to the garage of the house. Ritsu didn't notice her come it, and was bashing away on her home drumkit.

"That's _March of the Pigs_, right?" Mio asked from behind her. Ritsu jumped in surprise, and looked behind her; still drumming. The fast tempo snare hits turned into her just tapping the high-hat while hitting the bass every other note. "Definitely _March of the Pigs_."

"Hey Mio-chan, I mean er, uh- What do you want?" Ritsu went from happy to see her, to angry again.

"To say I'm sorry." Mio said bluntly, "Ritsu, I really didn't mean to hurt you...to make you..." She gulped, then forced out the next word, "..._bleed_." That word brought back that horrible memory of the blood on Tsumugi.

Ritsu sighed, she wanted to be angry, knew that she should have been angry, but Mio looked too sorry to harbor a grudge, "I was just kind of surprised, it was a rough morning, for all of us. I'm sorry I called you a bitch."

"I think you should say sorry to Tsumugi for unloading the contents of your nose on her blouse." Mio replied with a witty smile.

"Remind me to do that." Ritsu chucked, "Now that that's behind us, any word on Azusa and Yui-chan?"

"No." Mio said with a shake of her black hair. She crossed the room and sat down on one of the plastic chairs in the garage. Ritsu stood up and grabbed a drink out of the mini fridge in there. The place was well stocked with drinks, and the garage looked like a hang out spot. Ritsu's brother generally hung out in there with his friends. Ritsu would occasionally have to come down there to shoo one of the kids off her drums.

"Did you hear about all those blackouts in the Tokyo area, and the surrounding prefectures?" Mio asked the drummer.

Ritsu played a quick drum fill, much to Mio's annoyance, then replied, "Yeah, some ecoterrorist act or something. Think it's holding them up?"

"Yeah, I do." Mio answered, "Mob mentality is going to kick in, and there's going to be panic. I think they're both stuck in a hotel somewhere."

"I wish there was something we could do about it." Ritsu growled then followed up with the drum fill from the end of the guitar solo in the song _Tom Sawyer _by _Rush_.

"Maybe there is something we can do..." Mio said with a wicked grin.

"I smell your evil side coming out, go on." Ritsu replied, and played a 32nd note drum roll across her three toms.

"I was talking to Tsumugi, you know how are attendance is nearly perfect?" Mio asked.

"Yeah?"

"I had this idea of how to find Yui and Azusa, but it's kind of... risky." Mio told her.

Ritsu laughed and slammed down on her two cymbals, startling Mio, "You want us to skip school to go and find them, don't you?"

Mio blushed, "When you put it that way, it sounds really bad! But...yeah...I think we should go to Tokyo and start our search at every convenience store we can find. Yui would have had to stop at _one _of them."

"Simple, but that plan sounds like it could work." Ritsu replied, "You said Mugi-chan was in on this?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Cool, cool. But...how do we get to Tokyo?" Ritsu asked.

"That's the problem, we don't know if it's worth it getting train tickets, then taking buses and taxis all around town. Too much money." Mio answered.

Ritsu instantly thought up a plan, "I have an idea- My parents are gone for the week, but my mom left her car here..."

"You're not suggesting we steal your mom's car are you!" Mio gasped.

"Not _steal_." Ritsu said with a wave of her drumsticks, "_Borrow_, we just take it for one night, find Yui and Azusa, then bring them back. No one will ever know we're gone."

"Since when do you have a license?" Mio asked the drummer, with a skeptical look on her face.

"Since forever!" Ritsu lied, she _did k_now how to drive though. "Sounds like we need a cover up. Tell your parents you're studying overnight here, my parents are gone anyways, and Mugi-chan can say the same thing."

"We can't involve Tsumugi in this!" Mio protested.

"Yes we can," Ritsu argued, "it would be rude to leave our valuable keyboardist behind."

Mio sighed, she felt her hands shaking from nervousness. This whole idea was stupid, reckless, and good way to get grounded for the rest of her high school life, and probably get the Light Music Club disbanded. But how could the club play if two members were missing. And who better to find those two members than the rest of the band.

"Alright." Mio finally said, "Let's find those two and bring them back safe and sound!"

"I was going to say dead or alive, but that works too!" Ritsu cheered and threw her arm around Mio's shoulder, who was giving her a horrified look about what she had just said.

**STILL FIGHTING THE BATTLE**

**7:23**

"Mission journal entry number 146..." Yui panted, "Private Azu-nyan and I are the only ones left, we lost all the others to snipers in the woods. We've been marching for hours with no food or water, no ammo left either. To ever may find this tape, tell my sister I love her...I don't think we're make it back home."

"Yui-senpai, stop that!" Azusa snapped at her, she had been doing this for hours; entry 146 was probably an understatement. The sun was starting to lean towards the horizon, and Azusa was exhausted. Her feet were aching, the black clothes she was wearing clung to her body and were completely soaked in sweat, she wanted to go home to her bed more than anything else in the world.

"Azu-nyan, you evolved!" Yui gasped, and pointed at Azusa's face.

"Huh?" Azusa exhaled, and looked at herself, "Oh no, I got sunburned again!"

"It's okay, I love Brown Azu-nyan just as much as normal Azu-nyan!" Yui reassured the sunburned guitarist, and gently stroked the top of her head the same way one would pet a cat.

_See, she just admitted her love_, Azusa's pesky mind-voice said. _Go away mind-voice, you're making this harder than it already is! _Azusa shouted back at it.

"It's soooo hot." Yui groaned as they marched onwards down this road.

"Then take off the _black _hoodie." Azusa suggested.

"Never!" Yui shouted, and hugged herself as if to protect the article of clothing.

"Don't tell me you took a liking to that band." Azusa said, looking almost disappointed.

"No, it's just..." Yui stammered, "...I'm scared to."

"You're scared to take it off?"

"Yeah! I'm afraid to..." Yui shamefully admitted.

"Why, you are wearing something underneath, right?" Azusa asked. Her eyes drifted up to the gloomy overcast sky. It had been gray the whole day, but now it was turning more black. The sun was barely visible at the edge of the sky, but the clouds were directly above them.

"Yeah, that's not the problem." Yui answered.

"Then what is?" Azusa asked again, that was when the first drops off rain started, "I can't believe I'm saying this after yesterday, but I'm glad it's raining. Yui-senpai, take off the hoodie, you need to cool off. You look like you're about to pass out."

"No!" Yui cried and stepped backwards, "If you do, then the werewolf will eat me!"

Azusa heaved a heavy sigh, _Why does this not surprise me? _"Come on Yui-senpai, let's get that off."

"Never!" Yui cried and took off running. Azusa was fast on her tail.

"Yui-senpai, you're going to suffer from heat stroke if you run!"

**7:33**

"Starting to rain." Mio pointed out. Ritsu replied by turning on the radio.

"Windshield wipers." Mio told Ritsu. Ritsu replied by turning off the radio, then turning on the heat... "Windshield wipers." The doors locked, "Windshield wipers." The windows lowered, pelting them with rain.

"Windshield wipers!" Mio screamed at Ritsu.

"I know!" Ritsu turned and shouted back, "There's only like four more buttons I can try anyways."

"Cow!" Tsumugi screamed from the backseat.

Ritsu turned around, "Mugi-chan, we're looking for the windshield wipers. Your suggestion is appreciated though."

"No, Ritsu, _Cow_!" Mio screamed and climbed over Ritsu to grab the wheel. The car swerved sharply, but narrowly avoided the cow who strayed into the road.

Ritsu pushed Mio back into her seat and took the wheel again, "That was close. I don't think cows should get the right of way around here."

"Are you _sure_ you have a license, wait you're not even old enough!" Mio finally realized.

"Yeah, I have a rank _S _license on _Gran Turismo_." Ritsu replied proudly. Mio slunked into her seat and clutched the side of the armrests.

"I hope Yui-chan and Azusa-chan aren't out in the rain right now." Tsumugi worriedly spoke up from the backseat.

"Isn't there a cold front tonight?" Mio asked her, "You could literally freeze to death if you got caught out too late."

"Global warming my ass." Ritsu muttered from behind the wheel, "Hey look, I see two people on the side of the road!"  
"Are those _our _two people?" Tsumugi excitedly asked, and leaned in between them.

They passed two girls, both wearing back, apparently playing in the rain. One with long black hair and a _Megadeth _t-shirt. She was attempting to pull the hoodie off of the other girl, while the other girl was trying to sprint away.

Ritsu, Mio, and Tsumugi looked at each other, and spoke in unison, "Couldn't be!"

**7:40**

"Huh..." Azusa whispered to herself, and finally got that hoodie off of Yui, who fell into the grass.

"What's up, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked, seeming unaffected by that fifteen minute skirmish they had just engaged in.

Azusa realized it was cold, then ended up -most hypocritically I may add- and put it on, "I could have _swore _I just saw Ritsu driving someones car; very recklessly too."

"Azu-nyan, that's just the peaches talking." Yui declared, she had to admit that Azusa was right; it did feel good to be in the rain without that hoodie. Oh, how the tables had turned, and the heat had seemingly just got up and left.

"Maybe..." Azusa said under her breath, she didn't really have anything else to say. It was raining, it was dark, and they had nowhere to stay. "So what do we do if no one finds us?"

"They'll find us." Yui adamantly said.

"_But _if they don't we need a plan." Azusa sternly replied, "We'll need to find somewhere to stay the night at."

"We could just walk all night, it'll be like a sleepover!" Yui happily suggested.

"How is walking until our bodies, souls, and minds are dead, anything like a sleepover!" Azusa had to ask.

"No one sleeps and we're all very tired in the morning." Yui explained.

"I don't even a reply to that..." Azusa tiredly replied, "We've been walking for nearly eight hours. Yui-senpai, we need to find somewhere to stay!"

"Where does that lead?" Yui asked, and pointed at a dirt road leading off into the countryside, there was dumbfounded cow standing near it. To Yui, it was the cow of destiny.

Azusa just shrugged, "Probably to a farm or something; do you think they'd let us stay?"

"Farmers are simple folk, full of honor and compassion." Yui answered, "They'd _have _to let us stay. Maybe they'd even have a phone or something!"

"It's worth a try isn't it?" Azusa said, feeling her spirits lift just a little bit. With that, they began their hike down that muddy road. Azusa was dragging her aching feet through the mud, while Yui skipped cheerfully just a few feet in front of her.

"Hey, is that zucchini?" Yui stopped and asked, pointed at the plant growing from a vine at the side of the road.

"Looks like it." Azusa confirmed.

"We just found dinner!" Yui declared, and picked it. As far as zucchini went, it was pretty big, at least a kilogram in weight, "Now if we could just find some rice, some sweet potatoes, maybe a bit of chicken..."

"What would you do with chicken?" Azusa asked as they started walking again.

"Cook it." Yui told her, like it was common knowledge.

"Oh, so you know how to- kill, pluck, gut, clean, and cook a wild bird?" Azusa smirked.

"Yes." Yui lied, "Hey, if that's a rice paddy, do you think we could get some rice for dinner?" She pointed at the square of water that stretched out into the darkness to the left of them.

"What dinner!" Azusa nearly shouted, "If we find someone to stay with, they'll already have dinner made, we can just eat that! Besides, we don't have the stuff to cook any of that either!"

"I'll go get some!" Yui said, completely ignoring Azusa. The younger guitarist waited ten seconds before hearing a loud splash.

"Yui-senpai, if you had just listened to me..." Azusa walked over and began scolding. Instead of her senpai, all she saw was dark water, it was like something had just swallowed the older guitarist. Azusa found herself getting worried, "Y-Yui-senpai?"

Suddenly Yui jumped up out of the dark water, shivering and waving her arms, "Wow, that was deep!"

"Uh-huh..." Azusa muttered, the water was about at Yui's shins. Apparently she had fallen forward on her face; and now was completely drenched in water.

"Let's get you back on dry, er, not flooded land." Azusa said, and helped a waterlogged Yui onto land.

Arm in arm, they marched down the muddy path until a small little cabin loomed in the distance. There were no lights, and it looked very aged.

"Looks like no one's home." Azusa remarked as they got closer. Indeed, no lights, no sign of occupancy, but it looked maintained; no weeds growing up on the path or anything.

"Let's go in!" Yui excitedly said, and rushed ahead.

"Yui-senpai, don't trespass!" Azusa called from behind her, but Yui had already slid the door open and had her shoes off. Azusa slid her own soaked shoes off and stepped inside as well. The moonlight was the only illumination, but it only seemed to be one room. There was one medium sized bed in the corner, the sheets were a little dusty though, a small table in the middle of the room, and an old fashioned firepit with some old cast iron pots and pans.

"What is this place?" Azusa found herself asking. Not only were there no lights, there were no lights to turn on, this place was completely devoid of power. Yui caught on quickly by using some matches she found to light several paper lanterns on the walls. The sudden flickering light chased away the shadows, and actually gave the cabin a homey look. "Yui-senpai, someone will see the light and wonder why we're here!"

"Don't worry, Azu-nyan, we're four kilometers up a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, we _want _people to find us." Yui cheerfully replied, "But still, what is this place?"

Azusa looked around, trying to find out what it was. She stepped out the back door under the cover of the porch and looked around. To her surprise she found something rather interesting, part of the wall outside was completely scorched, and at its base was a rusty heap of metal. "What...is...this?"

"Azu-nyan, come look!" Yui called from inside. Azusa quickly obeyed, and ran back inside.

"What is it?" Azusa asked.

Yui was crouched over an old wash basin, "Look at this Azu-nyan, this thing is older than people!"

"Wow, this _is _old." Azusa remarked, "This whole place looks like something from the 40's. But it looks like someone is keeping it intact."

"Maybe that will help." Yui suggested, and pointed at a framed paper on the wall. Azusa stepped past her and read it.

_Now it it makes sense_, she thought. Yui was over her shoulder, "What does it say Azu-nyan?"

"It says this an old stop for refugees." Azusa said, feeling overwhelmed by the history this place had.

"What refugees?" Yui asked, "Did I miss something?"

"Refugees from World War II." Azusa said, barely hearing her own voice, "When people were fleeing to and from Tokyo to avoid the American bombings, they would stay in places like these occasionally on their way. It just had basic provisions, a bed, a place to cook and wash clothes, and a garden. It says here that local farmers keep the place in good shape to honor it. There used to a shine out on the porch out back, but it was destroyed when it was hit by an American bombshell."

"That's...amazing." Yui whispered, feeling the history's power wash over her, "But why would someone bomb a place like this? It's so beautiful and peaceful."

Azusa shrugged, "It probably wasn't intentional. Remember what we learned in history class, the American bombers bombed just about anything and everything they could. Chances are they were trying to blow up a farm or field, and a stray shell hit this place. But I don't know."

Yui placed her hand against the wooden walls of the old refugee haven, and tried to imagine families stopping here on their way to the countryside. For just a brief second she could feel their fear, anxiety, hope, and that sound of a B-29's engines as the continually made their runs over this part of the country. The occasional sound of anti aircraft guns firing back, and that bitter, bitter smell of napalm from the incendiaries that rained down on the city. They were close enough to the city that all those sounds and smells would have no doubt carried out there. It was like that for every country, the constant rumble of airplane engines overhead, that perpetual fear of having your home destroyed...except for America of course.

"Yui-senpai, are you okay?" Azusa whispered, a single tear ran down Yui's face.

"Oh, it's nothing...it's just, you know how places like this can really make you think?" Yui replied with a shaky laugh.

"Yeah, it's powerful." Azusa agreed.

Afterwords, Yui went outside and found some more vegetables growing. Using water from the pump, the pots and pans, she made pretty decent soup using the knowledge Ui had handed down to her. They ate in silence around their little fire, and wondered what the next day would bring them.

"We got wet again..." Azusa sighed, "I really don't want to catch a cold." _Or be naked again._

"Me either." Yui agreed, "Maybe we wash our clothes tonight using that basin, then have them dry around the fire."

"But then we'd be naked!" Azusa defensively said, _again..._

"I won't peek." Yui giggled like a prepubescent school girl.

Azusa buried her head in her damp jeans, "You remember the rules right?"

"The ones you broke?" Yui asked.

"You were cold!" Azusa retorted. Speaking of cold, it had already dropped to nearly freezing temperatures that night. But the fire was keeping them quite warm.

Yui sighed, "I don't want to catch a cold, I'm going to wash my clothes."

"Me too..." Azusa finally gave in, "Do you know how to wash clothes with a basin like that?"

"You bet!" Yui, surprisingly, replied, "Ui taught me how!"

"Poor Ui-chan, she must be worried sick about us." Azusa lamented, "I hope she's alright."

"Me too..." Yui sorrowfully sighed, "I'll have to find a good way to say sorry. How does increasing my hug output with her by 300% sound?"

"Do you have a real measurement for hugs?" Azusa skeptically asked.

"Yeah, I do." Yui proudly declared, "In fact, my hug output with you is down 14% today. But I can fix that..."

"No!" Azusa cried and placed her palm on Yui's forehead, stopping her advance. "Let's just, you know, get our clothes cleaned up."

"Okay." Yui shrugged, looking disheartened by Azusa's rejection. Azusa was afraid of the night, there was no telling what a love struck Yui-senpai was capable of. Her mind began to wander...

_"Don't worry Azu-nyan, I'll be gentle." Yui said in a low seductive tone. Instead of her normal clothes, she had a leather bondage outfit on, and was holding a whip, "It depends on what your definition of 'gentle' is. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

Azusa gasped out of her day dream, and glanced over at Yui, who was sliding her wet pants off while singing some old nursery rhyme about turtles. Azusa took a deep breath than went to undress. What Yui had said was true, she indeed could work the basin, even if there wasn't soap. It only took a minute get all the dust off the sheets, and they wrapped themselves in them as they sat around the fire and waited for their clothes to dry.

"What's our plan for tomorrow?" Azusa asked Yui, putting her in charge again.

"Keep walking, hope we find someone." Yui replied.

"That's it?" Azusa scowled.

"What else can we do?" The older guitarist shrugged, "I'm sorry Azu-nyan, but that's all I can think of, what else is there to do?"

"We could..." Azusa began to say, but realized that Yui was right. "I guess you're right, we kind of got ourselves stuck. We should have never left Tokyo."

"It's not that bad here is it?" Yui asked, trying to lift Azusa's spirits.

"Yes it is." Azusa grumbled, "I want to go home."

Maybe it was to fill her hug quota, or maybe it was because she felt like Azusa needed it; Yui wrapped an arm around Azusa, pulled her close and embraced her. Azusa felt that familiar warmth and comfort flow throughout her body, it was gladly welcomed that cold night.

_Her being in love with me makes this a little unnerving, but I really don't mind the hugs; she's warm. Gah, I'm letting my guard down._

"It's going to be really cold tonight." Azusa said, firelight casting shadows across her face.

"I'll keep you warm, you can count on this senpai." Yui proudly declared. Azusa accepted this, there was no fight left in her. She leaned over and rested her head on Yui's blanketed lap, it was surprisingly comfortable.

"Do you think we'll be able to go home tomorrow?" Azusa looked up and asked. The firelight was dancing on Yui's face. It somehow made her look older, more mature, beautiful in the traditional sense; no _cute _this time. Azusa had to admit that Yui had matured just a little bit in the last day or so. Her silliness wasn't as predominant, and she took things seriously when she needed to. She was trying to be a good senpai.

"I know we will, even if we have to walk." Yui replied.

"I'm going to bed now." Azusa said with yawn. She sat up and looked at Yui, who was pensively staring at the fire. She slowly leaned over and gently kissed Yui on the cheek. It was brief, but it wasn't sisterly.

**TO BE CONTINUED...AGAIN**

Once again, this ended up being drastically longer than I intended, but that's not really a bad thing is it? The next four chapters will _probably _be shorter, but then again that's how I meant these chapters to be. I don't know how I managed to make "They get left at a gas station, then walk to an old cabin and stay there" into 7k words. Then again, look how long the Lord of the Rings is; and how much of that is just walking.

Neat little background story here. I got the inspiration for that cabin from a book I read in what was probably the 5th grade. It was about a Japanese family trying to get to Tokyo while the country side is being constantly shelled. At one point they stayed at a shelter like that, so I thought it would neat to have Azusa and Yui do something along those lines; except they weren't starving, and a bombshell hadn't deafened one of them. I also had to tread carefully and express _no _opinion about that war whatsoever.

Possible landmine here. Ritsu borrowing her mom's car to go search for them, then bringing Tsumugi along. I could imagine some calling that "out of character", but I don't think any of us really know _what _they would do in that kind of situation. It's kind of a stretch, but it's also a major plot point later on.

A preview of what's to come next- Tsumugi makes a new friend, Mio argues with a store clerk, Yui and Azusa walk some more, a schism appears between them, Yui fulfills the prophecy, they save the world with the power of friendship and _Dragonforce _music and make an album that uses the words "fire", "steel", "everlasting" and "battle" more than 12 times each, then Tastychainsaws bases more of his previews on baseless lies.


	7. Schism

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 7- SCHISM**

Hello again, wanted to say thanks for the reviews you all took the time to write. It feels bad to say that the fluff that attracted so many will not be as predominant for a while. Hence the name of the chapter.

Fun fact, this chapter and part of the story was heavily inspired by the song _Mordecai _by _Between the Buried and Me _along with the two songs following on the album _Reaction _and _(Shevanel Take 2) _. It influenced a lot of the events here on out, especially what Azusa does to Yui at the end of this chapter...which may not be quite what you were all expecting, but that makes it fun.

I'm not saying "Go and listen to it right now with lyrics!" but maybe when you're done reading last chapter, it would be neat to do. It would be my music choice for the credits if Fanfiction could have credits. Who says it can't have credits!

**Guy Who Did Everything- Tastychainsaws**

Well, now that we got that out of the way...

Here's the link to the hoodie that Yui has... DOT com/item/6483/ which I am totally buying soon. I feel it's important to connect with the characters in my stories.

**6:58 AM**

"Is _that _one Yui or Azusa?" Ritsu asked, and pointed at an old couple jogging in the early morning.

"For the last time, Ritsu, _no_." Mio grumbled from the passenger seat, "Let's go back to interrogating convenience store clerks; at least that was interesting. Remember the one who wanted to show us his cockroach farm?"

"I know, I know, but we did that all for hours last night." Ritsu yawned, "My social skills are dead, along with my integrity."

"And my wallet, I don't know why I had to pay for gas." Mio complained.

"Because I'm poor." Ritsu shrugged, "How's Mugi-chan holding up?"

"I don't know." Mio replied, she leaned back to check on the keyboardist, "Still awake Tsumugi?"

"No." Tsumugi replied, her head was leaning on the window, her eyes searching for the two guitarists. They had been driving literally all night, stopping only for a few gas fill ups and coffee. Coffee money had run dry, so all funds were being pooled towards gas.

Tsumugi sighed loudly, "Have you ever just wanted to kill everyone on the planet?"

"No." Mio blinked.

"Oh, me either. I was just wondering what that would be like though." Tsumugi replied, "Can I ask you two a question?"

"Shoot." Ritsu sleepily said from behind the wheel.

"Why would Yui-chan be awake this early for any reason?" Tsumugi asked, "The only time that she's up this early is when she decides to stay up all night. Even Azusa-chan wouldn't be able to get her up at this point."

Ritsu pulled over to the side of the road and smashed her shiny forehead into the steering wheel.

"I think you broke her." Mio said to Tsumugi, "The sad thing is you're right. We never even thought about that, they probably stayed at motel somewhere...but _where_?"

"Maybe there?" Tsumugi replied and pointed at a get away motel for romantic couples across the street. There was van parked out front to replace the place's broken air conditioning.

"A love hotel? No, that wouldn't make sense." Mio replied with a shake of her head, "There's a convenience store up at the corner that we haven't checked yet...I think. Why are there so many god damned 7-11's in this city! They're every where, it's just so _convenient_!"

"Chain franchises piss me off." Ritsu grumbled, "Who wants to take this one?"

"I'll do it!" Tsumugi happily volunteered. She stepped out of the car and walked down the sidewalk to the chain store.

"I'm going to go see if that store right there has any heavy picks." Mio said, and went to exit the vehicle.

"What are heavy picks, since when is there different kind of guitar picks?" Ritsu asked as she was stepping out.

"Since forever," Mio replied, "The heavier ones are better for playing bass."

"You don't use picks for bass." Ritsu pointed out.

"You try playing the bass after the guitar solo in _Run to the Hills _without a pick." Mio said, and slammed the door close.

Meanwhile, Tsumugi realized she wasn't alone in the parking lot for this store. At her feet was a fluffy black and white kitten, whose tail was bigger than it was, "Good morning, Cat-chan." She said to it, realizing that a Yui-ism had rubbed off on her.

"Nya~!" The kitten mewed happily. Tsumugi reached down and stroked the cat behind its ears, it purred and rubbed against her.

"What's your name? I'm Kotobuki Tsumugi, but you can call me Mugi-chan like everyone else. They call me that so much that my real name is invalid." Tsumugi said to it. The cat just purred and rubbed against her legs. It had no collar, and looked to be alone, "I think I'll call you...Pickles the Cat."

"_Meww!_" The cat happily replied, and rubbed against her more forcefully. Tsumugi lowered her hand and the kitten happily licked at it, then proceeded to harmlessly gnaw on her like Tastychainsaws' cat did to him in the middle of the night, because it doesn't realize that he doesn't want to play with it at 4 AM when he has work in the morning.

"I don't think anyone will mind if I take you with me. I've always wanted a kitten, and I know my parents would love you." Tsumugi said half to herself, half to the kitten. She picked up Pickles the Cat and cradled it into her arms. Pickles happily obliged and made itself comfortable. Forgetting what she originally had come there to do, Tsumugi turned around to walk back; ignoring the convenience store that Yui had visited, who the clerk remembered perfectly.

Meanwhile, Mio was having issues of her own...

"Where did you get that!" Mio shouted at the tired looking clerk at the music store.

"Fuck! Stop yelling, I have a hangover..." The clerk, one Oishi Chenso, growled, "Where did I get what!"

"That purse on the counter, it belongs to my friend who just happens to be missing." Mio clarified.

"Ohhh, you're friends with Yui-chan and the other one that whines a lot and likes shitty music." He replied, "Yeah, I still have all their stuff, could you give it back to them for me? I kinda lost my car yesterday."

"Why do you have all their stuff!" Mio screamed and grabbed the hungover clerk by the collar of his shirt.

"Because I was giving them a ride, for fucks sake let go of me!" Oishi snapped and pushed Mio back, "This is why I don't do nice things, people suck. Touch me again and I'll bash in your tits with a pipe."

"Then where are they!" Mio screamed at him again, ignoring his threats to hit her bosom with a piece of plumbing.

"Oh..." He blushed and scratched the back of his head, "Well, funny story about that..."

"_Where are they!_"

"Okay, before you start kicking me in the face, you have to understand that what happened to them is not my fault." He told her with a defensive wave of his harm, "I was giving them a ride, then when were at a gas station, these cops showed up. I was driving with a suspended license, and my car is unregistered. They towed me away, and I had to spend the rest of the day at the station; they forced me to leave the girls behind, they didn't believe that someone like me could have picked up two high school girls."

"I wouldn't have either." Mio grimaced.

"Shut the fuck up!" He snapped back, "Look, I was at least given the liberty to have all my stuff out of my car, which includes their stuff. I have it in the back room if you want it. And if you see them, tell them my story."

"Fine, whatever, just give me their stuff." Mio demanded, not wanting to spend another second with this guy.

She returned to the others with an armful of stuff, and stuck it all in the back with Tsumugi and the new cat. Ritsu was sound asleep on top of the wheel. Mio casually reached over and honked the horn. Ritsu jumped up and shouted briefly.

"I didn't do it, it was all Mio!" Ritsu shrieked, but realized where she was at. Mio had Azusa's discarded shirt on her lap, and Tsumugi had a kitten, "Which one of you wants to explain first?"

"I made a friend!" Tsumugi exclaimed and held up the fluffy kitten to Ritsu face. It smiled its cat grin at her.

"Nice to meet you, Cat-san." Ritsu said and shook the cat's paw. "Ow! Retract your claws, retract your claws!"

"I have a lead on our guitarists." Mio frantically said. Tsumugi and Ritsu both leaned in to hear this, after a night of fruitless searching, any news was good news. Ritsu tapped the car's CD player so that _The Who's _song _Pinball Wizard _began playing. As the guitar began, so did Mio, "Turns out that Yui and Azusa hitched a ride with some bum, but the police hauled him back here. That means they're wandering up that road we drove here on...in the rain...at night."

Ritsu switched out of neutral and slammed on the gas. Tires screeched as she drove over the edge of the curb, and began driving back out of the city. _Pinball Wizard's _chorus had just began as she did this.

"I wonder how much money it would take Yui to smash _Gitah _like Pete Townshend does to his guitars." Ritsu wondered as they were speeding along.

**MORE PROBLEMS**

The morning light had illuminated several problems for the two missing guitarists...

"I don't remember this being a forest..." Azusa said as the two of them stood there outside their historic shelter. Sure enough, they were surrounded by trees on all sides. In the dark they couldn't have seen their depth. Neither Azusa or Yui had known there would be a forest behind those trees. What was worse, there were actually several dirt paths leading to where they were.

"Well let's get going." Yui said, then began marching towards the woods, "Wait, Azu-nyan?"

"Huh?"

"Which path did we take to get here?" She asked.

Azusa gave her a dumbfounded look, "Oh come on Yui-senpai, we came in there..." She pointed at one path, "No, wait it wasn't that one..." She then pointed at another, "The rain washed away our tracks!"

"I think it was that one." Yui said, and pointed at a crude, overgrown path leading towards the hills in the distance.

"Yui-senpai, we were walking down a flat road." Azusa reminded her, "There were no hills."

"This was is a shortcut!" Yui told her, "Trust me, I know exactly where we're going."

"If you say so..." Azusa muttered, not quite believing her senpai. _Why would Yui-senpai lie like that though? She admitted to being wrong all those other times, but she never once said, "I know where we're going." I know she obviously has no idea where she's going, but I guess I'll follow her. If only to figure out what she's trying to do._

The path Yui chose wasn't tended at all, grass grew up to their knees in certain points. They even saw a pig go running past them at one point. The farmland they had passed was nowhere in sight, no rice paddies, no vegetables.

Azusa couldn't take wandering blindly into the forest much longer, "Yui-senpai, where are you going!"

"It's a short cut home!" Yui told her, to Azusa she sounded like a little kid whining, "Trust me!"

"My trust in you started fading when you got us in the wrong concert." Azusa growled, "I swear, if we die in these woods- your ass is haunted."

"Azu-nyan, _language_!" Yui scolded, "But I think I know where this is, I think I've been here before."

"You've got to be kidding." Azusa sighed, "You think you've been here before?"

Yui nodded, looking sure of herself.

"You're trying to tell me that you have voluntarily been in this random patch of forest before in your life, and that your remember it well enough to find your way home. Not back to the road, but _home_?"

Yui nodded again.

Azusa heaved a heavy, deep, angry sigh, "Are you familiar with the term, 'compulsive liar'?"

"Yeah, why?" Yui answered.

Azusa didn't even bother, "Fine, just go get us even more lost. That would make this weekend complete, getting lost in the woods. Maybe we can get attacked by a wild animal too!"

"You're being sarcastic, aren't you?" Yui asked, feeling proud of her observation. Azusa just shook her head, and followed Yui onwards. _Why would she say that she knows this place? Just where are you taking me Yui-senpai? _

"This is just like a real adventure." Yui dreamily said to the clouds, "Now we're in this forest, which is definitely enchanted, magical...or even haunted."

"I'm glad to see you're taking this seriously." Azusa grumbled.

"I bet we'll find ghouls." Yui went on.

"You're talking to yourself at this point, aren't you?" Azusa asked under her breath. She had woken up that morning completely insufferable. Despite her efforts to keep warm, a cold was already working its magic on her. All of a sudden Yui was the last person she wanted to be around.

"Remember that one song that the band on my shirt played?" Yui asked her, and pointed at the sneering werewolf.

"No."

"The one that was like..." Yui cleared her throat and took in a deep breath.

"For the love of God Yui don't-" Azusa tried to say.

"_THESE GHOULS THAT ROAM THAT ROAM THESE DARKENED WOODS ARE THIRSTING FOR YOUR THROAT_!" Yui screamed in near perfect English. Birds flew off in all directions.

"Why is that you only know English when it suites you? And how did you even understand the lyrics!" Azusa asked, barely being able to refrain from screaming.

Yui reached into her back pocket and retrieved the album booklet from the album she had bought the day before. It had all the lyrics translated, "See Azu-nyan."

"Just don't scream again..." Azusa said, and rubbed her aching head, "You'll attract ghouls, or something."

"Good thinking." Yui complimented, "Hey Azu-nyan, what's a ghoul anyways?"

"Another word for zombie." Azusa answered.

"Hey look, blackberries!" Yui cried out and pointed at a thorny bush where fat, squishy berries were growing.

"They're out of season, that's weird." Azusa remarked, but wasn't about to just pass up on some juicy berries. Yui rushed past her, and the album booklet fell onto the ground behind her. Azusa reached down and picked it up, "You dropped this!"

"You can hold on to it." Yui told her, and went to eat some tasty berries.

"Sure..." Azusa muttered, she leafed it open and casually read some of the lyrics. Her face distorted into a face of utter disgust, _Are lyrics like this even legal! This song "Virally Yours" is about a man who gets sexually aroused by intentionally killing people as a doctor, this is horrible! Just reading about the smell of vomit making this man aroused is...oh god, I'm going to be sick..._

Yui turned around to find Azusa clutching her stomach and staggering towards some bushes, "Azu-nyan are you..._oh god_..." Yui quickly turned away, not even hugs could save the younger guitarist now. After Azusa was done heaving up the contents of her vegetable breakfast, Yui slowly approached her.

"Get that thing away from me!" Azusa screamed, and pointed at the werewolf on Yui's hoodie. It's red eyes stared back at her, its teeth thirsting for her throat, wanting nothing more than to add her blood to the coat of blood that was already staining it.

"But Wolf-chan wouldn't hurt anybody." Yui attempted to convince Azusa.

"He's ripping the head off of some friendly woodland creature, and is standing on gravestones!" Azusa snapped back, her head was burning more than had been just a few minutes ago. What she believe to just be an annoying head cold, was actually a full blown fever.

"You haven't heard his side of the story though." Yui pouted.

**HOT ON THE TRAIL**

"Ritsu, stop there." Mio requested, and pointed at a gas station, convenience store chain. It was located in the middle of nowhere, and looked like no one had been there the whole day. However, the large number of pumps, and the size of the parking lot hinted that it probably saw better days.

"We're fine on gas, what do you need." Ritsu replied, but ultimately pulled it. In the last 12 hours, her driving skills had gone from terrifying to moderately reassuring.

"Coffee, our second wind is fading." Mio told her, "Just look at Tsumugi."

Tsumugi was sitting up, but was completely dead to the world. Pickles the Cat was comfortably sitting on her lap, snoozing as well.

"Tsumugi..." Mio whispered and gave her a light nudge of the shoulder. The keyboardist didn't react in anyway. The cat did though, Pickles looked up and blinked at Mio. "Can you wake Tsumugi?"

The kitten stretched and yawned, then rolled on his back. He looked up at Tsumugi's sleeping face with strange expression. Ritsu noticed it right away, it had the eyes of a hunter.

"Mio-chan, I think something's wrong with Mugi-chan's new pet." Ritsu noted.

Mio just chuckled, "Look how happy it look- _Jesus Christ!_"

The cat leaped up and sunk its claws into Tsumugi's cheeks and bit down on her left eyebrow. Tsumugi's eyes shot open, and the panic began. "Get it off! Get it off!"

"Mio, do something!" Ritsu cried.

Mio carefully tried to get hold of the cat, she gently grabbed it and tried to pull it off of Tsumugi. The cat didn't let go, it's claws were barely in her skin, but just enough to keep it plastered to its face. It didn't seem she was bleeding though.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Tsumugi shouted, Mio let go of the cat. "Ricchan, can you remove Pickle's claws from my face?"

"Why not me?" Mio pouted.

"Okay, I'll save you Mugi-chan." Ritsu declared, and carefully grabbed the cats paws. With a bit of wiggling, and a bit of Tsumugi wincing, the cat's claws were removed. It was still happily chewing on her eyebrow though.

"What now? Tsumugi asked, her voice was slightly muffled by the cat hanging off her eyebrow by its teeth, "I don't want to sound whiny, but this is kind of excruciatingly painful."

"Hold on..." Ritsu told her, and wiped sweat off her forehead. There was an atmosphere of extreme anticipation as Ritsu hovered over her.

"Are you going to do something!" Mio shouted after a solid minute of waiting.

"Yes." Ritsu replied, then in the most anti-climatic way possible, grabbed the kitten and tried to pull it off. It budged, but it firmly held its jaws closed on Tsumugi's eyebrow. "It's not coming off!"

"Bad kitty!" Mio scolded. As if by magic, the cat released its grip and fell onto Tsumugi's lap. The three of them sat in stunned silence and watched it ball up into a comfortable position.

"Um...yeah...store." Ritsu reminded, trying to forget what had just happened.

"I'm going in for coffee, want anything?" Mio asked the wounded keyboardist. She still had 65hp left, that was enough to withstand even a Horrid Wilting spell. It was times like those that everyone was thankful that Tsumugi rolled a natural 18 for her constitution score. Added with her +2 constitution bonus for "possibly" being Finnish, she got an extra five hit points a level. Now here she was, a level 13 paladin with 156hp max. That paired with her _+5 Holy Avenger _made her a powerful asset to their group.

"Oh, can I come too?" Tsumugi asked, "I've never been into a roadside stop like this!"

"Where are you from again?" Ritsu asked under her breath.

"Okay, but Pickles stays behind." Mio replied, Tsumugi nodded and followed her in.

They crossed the barren pavement of the parking lot and entered the glass doors. The place looked like bandits had attacked. The power was out, random garbage and clutter was strewn about the floor, the shelves were checkered by blank spots from all the shop lifters. One lonely employee was desperately trying to sweep the place up. He flinched when he saw them.

"Hello, Lowly Clerk." Tsumugi greeted with a wave.

"Take whatever you want, just don't hurt me!" He cried, and waved his arms defensively. Tsumugi noticed that he had a bruise on his forehead, and his uniform was ruffled. As she was dealing with him, Mio went to fill up on extra caffeinated coffee for them.

"Sir, tell me what happened." Tsumugi gently said to him. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"They just kept coming, wave after wave of customers. I'm the only one here too! I told them to form an orderly line and I would help each of them, _but they didn't listen! _Then the shoplifters came.." He cried, a quick inspection of his nametag told Tsumugi that his name was "Negishi".

"Are you hurt, Negishi?" Tsumugi asked him in the gentlest voice she could muster.

"How do you know my name!" He gasped, Mio then appeared with the coffee. "Who is she!"

"I'm Akiyama Mio, pleased to meet you." Mio said with a bow, she placed the cardboard coffee holder onto the counter and went for her wallet.

"And I'm Kotobuki Tsumugi, but you can call me Mugi-chan."

Negishi eyed them suspiciously, "Mio...Mugi...sounds a lot like Mickey and Malory to me! You're here to kill me, just remember that I'm the only clerk left!"

"What?" Mio blinked.

He staggered backwards to the cash register and opened it. Much to the surprise of the two girls, he grabbed a wad of money and shoved it into Mio arms, "Take it, just don't kill me! I have too much to live for! I do voice acting for extras in anime, I'd be missed!"

Mio couldn't think of how to reply. This man had just shoved 25,000 yen into her arms and begged her not to kill him. "I'll use this to pay for the coffee."

"Don't make fun of me!" Negishi screamed, "Just take it all and go. I'm not afraid to fight for my life." With that he took a fighting pose.

"Mio-chan, he's starting to scare me." Tsumugi whispered to the bassist.

"Let's just go." Mio said, and walked out with money and coffee in hand. Never in their life had either of them been that confused. Somehow Mio believed that taking that money had been the right choice in regards to their safety.

Mio slipped into the passenger seat, and then dumped all the money onto Ritsu's lap, "Happy birthday."

"What's all this!" Ritsu gasped, "Holy fuck, did you two rob the place!"

"No!" Mio and Tsumugi cried in unison.

Mio sighed and placed a hand on Ritsu's shoulder, "Ritsu, have you ever seen the movie _Natural Born Killers_?"

"No." Ritsu told her.

"Then never mind. Let's drive off before someone starts taking potshots at us with an automatic shotgun." Mio grumbled.

"Don't worry Ricchan, we're as confused as you are." Tsumugi assured the drummer. Ritsu shrugged and began her drive onwards.

"Did you ask if he saw Azusa or Yui?" Ritsu asked them as they pulled out.

"I really don't think it would have done any good." Mio admitted, although Negishi _had _seen Azusa the day before.

**THE AZUYUI PROJECT IS STAGGERED**

"Y-Yui-senpai." Azusa gasped, and grabbed onto her senpai's shoulder to stop from falling, "I can't walk anymore."

Yui helped Azusa to a shady patch of soft grass under a tree to sit down, "What's wrong Azu-nyan, do your feet hurt?"

Azusa coughed violently into her hand, "No, I think I have a fever."

"I'm sure you're just a little warm from the heat." Yui told her, still trying to be the optimist as always. Although it was chilly enough that they could see their breath. She placed the back of her hand against the back of Azusa's forehead, it was like touching a the hood of a hot car. "You do have a fever, let me go get some water!"

"I don't need water, I just need sleep." Azusa whispered, sounding surprisingly calm, then leaned her head against Yui's shoulder.

"Don't worry Azu-nyan, we're almost out of here, we'll get you home soon." Yui assured her.

Azusa's fevered eyes shot open wide, _That lie again? We're lost, we're going to die lost, and this is all your fault_. Her inflamed mind was no longer in the mood for reason, or giving people second, or more like 7th chances. However, she was too exhausted to say anything more than, "That's nice."

"Wait here while I go and get some water." Yui ordered, than ran off through some low shrubs. Azusa shot an angry glance at that direction. _You don't know where you're going are you? You'll probably gone for hours._

But Yui knew exactly where she was going. A small stream had been following that trail parallel for several miles now. When she got to it, she took off her shirt and hoodie, then soaked her normal shirt in cold water before putting the blood stained werewolf back on her body. Now with something to cool Azusa's forehead, she proudly returned.

Azusa was still feeling horribly bitter about her entire situation, and she blamed her senpai for all of it. _I still want to know WHY she's dragging me through these stupid woods. She knows we're lost, and that we've been lost for hours, but why didn't she ever turn back to find her way out? Yui-senpai isn't the type who can't admit at being wrong...then why?_

"I'm back Azu-nyan!" Yui cheered than ran over to aid her, Azusa flinched at the sudden noise. Azusa felt instantly relief as Yui tied the cool cloth around her head, but didn't bother wondering where that cloth had come from. Chances are that she wouldn't like the answer. All of sudden she was wishing that she could trade Yui our for Mio or Tsumugi, or both. That thought stuck with her as she drifted off into a shaky sleep.

_"Don't worry Azusa, I know exactly where we're going." Mio told her, and lead them around another corner of the trail into a clearing, buildings were in the distance._

_ "Wow, Mio-senpai, how did you know?" Azusa, still feverish in her dream, asked._

_ "Because good senpai's know exactly where they're going." Mio proudly declared, "Oh Azusa-san, you're still ill. You can't walk in that condition at all!"_

_ "Oh, I can walk the rest of the way." Azusa blushed._

_ "Nonsense!" Tsumugi happily shouted out, "We can use my private helicopter to get out of here!"_

_ "You have a private helicopter!" Azusa gasped._

_ "I do now." Tsumugi smiled. Up in the air, a fully armed Ground Force Self Defense helicopter was hovering down. The driver, one Ritsu-senpai._

Yui, still knowing exactly where they were, hefted Azusa up onto her back. It wasn't too hard to get the sleeping guitarist into a piggy-back position, then began to continue on. Azusa muttered something about helicopters in her sleep.

"One would be nice right now." Yui admitted. She had one hand on Azusa's wrist to keep her steady, and the other one was being used to read the lyrics to that album _Nocturnal_. It was then that Yui knew how she was going to apologize to Sawa-chan for no doubt making her life hell from this. Hirasawa Yui would..._write and perform a metal song_.

Her brain instantly went to work with thinking lyrics, that little booklet would do wonders for inspiration. The question remained though, what to write a song about? She looked down at her hoodie, the blood covered werewolf leered back up at her. Then she knew what to do.

_An unspeakable horror, from the blackest woods tainted by Hell's darkened kiss. _Yui found that thinking up metal lyrics was easy. Just think of scary things then put them together into a scary sentence. _Wrath held back throughout the centuries, it's chains have been broken. It sets upon the denizens of this peaceful place, sets to bathe the world in the blood of virgins and children. The bodies of the weak pave the road to its horrible lair._

"This is easy." Yui smiled to herself, wishing she had something to write these lyrics down with. If something went wrong and she forgot her own lyrics, which was very possible, she could always cover another band; one that Sawako liked. But what bands did Sawako like again? For some reason, the only metal band Yui could think of was _Black Sabbath_, but she couldn't remember how popular those guys were. She decided that the answer was probably, "not very much". If she couldn't remember where she had heard their name, then Sawako probably didn't know about them; that was Yui's logic.

Speaking of metal, Yui just had to wonder why everything, and everyone she encountered was associated with that music genre in some way. Sawako, the concert, Oishi Chenso, everything so far was metal related. She found that a bit strange considered the genre had such a small modern following compared to other genres like pop, rap, normal rock, and Tastychainsaws' personal favorite- Deep fried southern pirate stoner death rock. The latter didn't quite work because that genre didn't really have much of a following at all.

Her memory was shaky about the surrounding area, but Yui still knew exactly where they were; she hadn't been lying. In junior high they had gone on a camping trip to learn some things about nature that Yui promptly forgot. This just happened to be the trail they had taken. It was a long one, but it would lead them back onto the road by their town.

Azusa woke up a few times from her slumber; asking for water or to do her business behind some bushes while Yui patiently waited; grinding her teeth to block out any noise she may have heard from Azusa. She had chosen a particularly bad time to get a fever, but Yui was doing her best to help her and it was working for the most part.

When Azusa started to get chilly and began shivering, Yui was quick to give her werewolf hoodie to her. A frightening as the graphic was, Yui was starting to get attached to it. It looked so angry, and part of her wanted to give it a hug. That wasn't really an option and she knew it. The monster would no doubt use her intestines as fried noodles if it were real, or eat her head like chestnut, use her heart the same way she would a strawberry, her limbs would be greasy fried chicken... Yui quickly began to think of something else.

**THE AZUYUI RESCUE TEAM HAS PROBLEMS OF ITS OWN...**

As they drove on, each of them were wondering where Azusa and Yui had gone to sleep. It was possible that they stayed at one of the many outlying farms, or found a covered bus stop or something. Those were various places Ritsu had seen hitchhikers stay the night. Ritsu was pepped up on caffeine again, but Pickles' constant meowing was driving her crazy, "Mugi-chan, would you please silence your cat?"

"I fed him some of my lunch, but he keeps meowing!" Tsumugi hopelessly cried. Pickles the Cat was happily meowing loudly on her lap.

"Don't make me come back there!" Ritsu threatened.

"Pickles, shhh!" Tsumugi shh'd at the cat. It didn't listen.

"If you don't stop meowing, I _will _turn this car around!" Ritsu shouted at the cat. The cat smiled back at her, but stopped its howling.

"I don't want to sound rude, Tsumugi, but why did we take him with us?" Mio asked.

"Because he didn't have a home!" Tsumugi reminded her, then just under her breath muttered, "At least I think he didn't."

"I would have left that screaming ball of fur where I found him." Ritsu grumbled.

"Don't say things like that, you'll hurt his feelings!" Tsumugi cried.

"Oh what's he going to do?" Ritsu smirked, she didn't even have time to scream when a ball of fur hit her like a brick.

"Ritsu!" Mio cried as the car swerved sharply, its cause was a cat who was now biting onto Ritsu's forehead as it had done with Tsumugi's eyebrows.

"Get it off, get it off!" Ritsu screamed, and struggled to get a hold of her car. She eventually got it to the side of the road, but couldn't get the cat off.

"Mio-chan, save her!" Tsumugi cried from the back seat, unable to act. Mio carefully grabbed hold of the cat and gave it a good tug, it only embedded its claws deeper into Ritsu's face. It had struggled not to harm Tsumugi when it tried to save her from her own eyebrows, but this was not the case with Ritsu. It _wanted _to hurt her.

Ritsu screamed and flailed her arms as the cat's claws embedded themselves deeper into her face. She managed to open the car door and fall into the grass outside. The cat fell off her face, and Ritsu used this opportunity to make a run for it.

"Ricchan, stop! You're only enraging him!" Tsumugi cried out as Ritsu ran into a field of corn. Mio and her waited several agonizing minutes for Ritsu to return from the corn.

"Close all the windows!" They heard her cry from the forest of vegetables. They did so without question, but were still a bit confused by it. Soon Ritsu was sprinting back at the car, but now had more than dozen cats following her.

"It had friends!" She screamed and slammed the door behind her. Two orange tabby cats hopped onto the hood of the car and glared hungrily at them from the outside. The sound of meows was deafening.

"I'm scared." Tsumugi whimpered, "Do something Ricchan."

Ritsu started the car, and honked the horn. The felines instantly fled back into their homes. The three of them heaved a sigh of relief as they began driving back.

"Ritsu, what's that on your leg?" Mio asked, there was something black and white, but was obstructed to her.

"Oh, that's just..." Ritsu began saying then looked down. There was Pickles the Cat smiling back up at her.

**PARANOID**

Azusa eyes flickered open, those bright sunbeams that shone down from above the trees were gone. This was the first time since morning she was fully awake, or at least that was what she thought. She would have been surprised to find that she had been awake for multiple times throughout the day, and even made conversation with Yui about metal lyrics a few times. However, she remembered nothing of that. She remembered arguing with Yui about being lost in the morning, and that was it.

Now it was nighttime, or close. The sky was still blue, but the sun had settled beneath the horizon for the time being. Luckily there weren't any clouds that day.

Her head still ached, in fact it was worse than before. Something was wrapped around her forehead, and it was soaked in a mixture of her sweat and water. She painstakingly raised her arm and wiped sweat off her face. She then realized that various things were not right about her situation.

First off, she was laying down...on Yui's lap. Yui's shirt was gone, all she had was her bra. _Did...I miss something? _

"Azu-nyan, good morning...or evening!" Yui greeted her with a smile, "Good news, we're almost home. I just had to take a break for awhile, you're heavier than you look."

Azusa did not take that as a compliment, "What?"

"After carrying you all day, I'm tired." Yui told her.

_So that's what she means. I was sick and fell asleep, so she carried me. But where are we? _Azusa decided to go and ask. Her voice came out shaky, "W-where are we?"

"We're near the meeting place, so it's maybe two hours until we get home." Yui answered. Azusa just blinked, _what's that supposed to mean?_

Azusa shook her head then went to stand up. She got to her hand and knees, then use the tree Yui was leaning against to support herself up. Much to her embarrassment, her black jeans dropped around her knees. She quickly pulled them back up and buttoned them up, blushing the whole way. Luckily Yui hadn't had noticed this.

But Azusa had to wonder just _why_ her pants had been unbuttoned, "Yui-senpai, w-why were my pants unbuttoned?"

Yui shrugged, "I don't know."

_Liar, _Azusa's bitter mind spat. A horrible, unjustified, paranoid piece of reasoning floated to the surface of Azusa's mind. _Yui-senpai is in love with me, we've already established that. I was asleep all day, that would give her the chance to do whatever she wanted to me...Even apparently dress me, I'm wearing her werewolf. I can't take this anymore, her hands WERE IN MY PANTS! I never expected Yui-senpai to be that kind of pervert, NEVER. _

Azusa pulled it off her body shoved into Yui's hands, "Keep that thing away from me!" She nearly snarled, the sheer hostility in her voice made Yui flinch.

"O-okay Azu-nyan." Yui said, a little startled. She pulled it over her head, it felt good to have something covering her body again. She then had a brief flash of memory. About thirty minutes ago, Azusa had awoken from her shaky sleep having to go to the restroom. Chances were that she was too out of it to remember to button her pants back up. "Do you want to get going again? I can carry you some more if you want."

"Keep your hands off of me!" Azusa shouted and took several steps away from Yui, "I know exactly why my pants were undone!"

"Oh, me too!" Yui happily replied, feeling proud that she had figured out what Azusa meant.

"So you know damn well why I don't want you touching me!" Azusa growled at her, her voice was dripping with acid.

Yui equated that hostility with her fever, and didn't realize that Azusa was beyond angry at her. Yui assumed she must have made a mess or something while relieving herself, that made sense if she was sick and not in full control of her motor skills. She was probably embarrassed and didn't want Yui figuring out. _Yeah that must be it_, Yui decided. With a comforting smile, she spoke up, "Don't worry Azu-nyan, you don't need to be embarrassed. These things happened when you're sick."

Azusa gave her the most horrified look she had ever given anyone. _She just admitted to what she did. I have to get out of here. _"Yui-senpai, this isn't okay. I never expected this from you!"

It took a moment for Yui to figure out what Azusa meant. That was okay though, Azusa was sick and not everything coming out of her mouth made much since; but Yui was patient with her. Yui decided that Azusa was feeling guilty about making her carry her all day. Yui kept that warm comforting smile across her face, "Don't worry Azu-nyan, I'd do it all again if I had to."

Azusa didn't know how to reply to that, it was like Yui-senpai was making fun of her. _I...I think I understand it now. She took me out here to do...this. This is like some backwards attempt of hers to __seduce me or something. Yui-senpai risked my health to behave like a 14 year old boy that's alone with a girl for the first time. This is the most selfish thing I've ever seen anyone do._

There were many times in Yui's life where she had been confused by something someone had said or done. Mainly because people spoke in dual meanings, or just acted on impulse in ways that Yui would never understand. This was one of those times; because Azusa slapped her across the face with back of her palm. Hard enough to draw blood at the corner of her lip.

All Yui could do is sit against that tree and look up at Azusa with wide eyes; eyes that showed a mixture of surprise, hurt, and overall complete and utter confusion. Yui was completely stupefied. Thick tears appeared around the corners of her eyes as she struggled to speak, "A-Azu-nyan... what was that for?"

"You know that it was for! How could you think I would ever consent to something like this!" Azusa sharply replied.

"_What!_" Was Yui's reply. She had absolutely no idea what Azu-nyan was talking about. She had spent the entire day trying to nurse her back to health while walking home. Hirasawa Yui wanted to know what she had done wrong, she had done everything she could.

"Every thing you did really confused me, but I understand it all now." Azusa said, then turned to walk off somewhere.

"I did everything for you!" Yui pleaded from behind her, which was true. She had made all their decisions by what she thought was in their best interest, and would get them home faster with the least amount of trouble. Her only true mistake had been getting the bus number wrong. Everything else had just failed by circumstance.

"You did it because you're selfish, Yui-senpai!" Azusa snapped back, "You didn't once really think of me did you! You just went along with your childish fantasies, and look where it got us." Fantasies was referring to what Azusa believed to be Yui's romantic interest in her.

"S-selfish?" Yui said, utterly taken back by that word, "...b-but I know where we are! See where the path splits up, we just head right and it'll take us right near our town!"

"Then I'll go the other way." Azusa adamantly replied, "Don't follow me. I'm sorry Yui-senpai, but this is the end of our friendship. You said you would take care of me, and then you lied because you're selfish. Just tell people we got separated, so they don't condemn you for abandoning me or something."

Yui's tears broke into full fledged sobbing. This was so sudden, and she could have never predicted it. Why was Azu-nyan saying these things to her, it couldn't just be because she was sick. There had to have been some horrible misunderstanding between them that Yui had missed; but she didn't know what that could have been. Azusa quickly disappeared from sight, apparently keeping her word.

Now Yui was alone in the woods, with dark fast approaching. Alone, hurt, confused, scared for Azusa and herself. She couldn't remember anytime in her life that she had been that upset. Azusa had told her not to follow, but Yui was tempted to go to her and do one of two things.

Either warn her how that path led to a series of hiking trails that twisted and turned. She could get lost easily without map. Those trails _did _lead to a road though, not the right one. Just one that lead to some more farms, even further away. Yui could hope that Azusa got lost enough that she wound up back here, or she would get lost indefinitely. And Yui would be the one to blame.

She also wanted to go and plea for Azusa to forgive whatever crime Yui had committed against her. To find out why Azusa had called her _selfish, _that was not a word that Yui was commonly called in serious conversation. Ui had occasionally scolded her for taking too much food, but she had never been called selfish in that kind of selfish. The kind of selfish that sabotages friendships and gets neglects people's health. This left Yui wondering just what she had done.

However, she had to figure out which path she was going to take. The path to her own freedom, where she could go and get help for Azusa. Or go after Azusa and beg for forgiveness and save their friendship.

Yui took took a deep breath, wiped away her tears...

**AND MADE HER DECISION **

For those who may not be familiar, the word "schism" means a division or split. Which aptly sums up this chapter. I have admit that I do feel kind of like an asshat. Someone asks for more fluff in a review, and I give them this. I assure you all that this _will_ have a happy ending. Just bear with these rough patches, it makes the outcome all the sweeter.

Ahem, next time in "Long Way Home"... Ritsu and the rest _finally _succeed at something, Azusa feels a bit of remorse towards her situation, she also makes some new friends, the Cats of the Corn return for blood, Yui makes her decision, a group of children make fun of a priest's lack of hair, then the guy flips out and God sends down 42 bears from the woods to kill all the residents of the village. Oh wait, that's the Bible, my bad. No seriously, that's a real part of the Bible.


	8. Selfish Yui Acts Selfish

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 8- SELFISH YUI ACTS SELFISH**

So the last chapter just a little angsty? That's all? I mean Azusa frikken denounced their friendship, pretty much. With that in mind, you can probably see why there wasn't much I could do in the fluff department. But there will be more later on, don't get me wrong.

Although I've said this to myself twice already, this chapter should be shorter than average. Because once again, not all that much happens, but it's important stuff. But there is _a lot _of shifting around between characters.

Brief warning, this chapter is actually pretty dark. There's nothing that would make it rated M, but don't expect to feel warm and fuzzy by the end of it.

**THE LEFT PATH**

She would do what Azusa had recommended, tell everyone they ended up separated in the forest It hurt so bad to admit it, but Yui knew that following Azusa would only lead to more problems. She held back tears as she began to walk the other way. Her only company was a small stream traveling over a rocky bed next to her.

Yui peered down into her reflection, it was still light enough to do so. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and a small trail of red was stained beneath her lip from where Azusa had randomly slapped her.

Her mind kept going over the events of the past couple days, trying desperately to figure out what she had done to set Azusa off like a grenade. All she had done was try her best to get them home safely, but something she had done made Azusa hate her.

"What did I do Azu-nyan?" Yui whimpered to the stream below her. She sniffled once, then kept going. The bitter melancholy feeling of heartbreak wouldn't go away, it was sickening, it was black. Even thinking about the happiest things she could wouldn't alleviate that feeling. Now she knew why girls cried so much after having a boy dump them. Getting left without warning like that fucking hurt, and for some it never seemed to get better.

Although Yui would never tamper with them, she could briefly understand why people dabbled in drugs and alcohol. It was worth almost any price to get rid of that horrible feeling of hurt. It wasn't like a guy had left her, it was more than that. She had lost one of her best friends, and she still didn't know why. If she just knew why, then maybe she could focus on fixing what she did wrong.

She stopped briefly to look at her reflection again, she didn't look any better. That werewolf was still hacking away at its foe. Yui wished she had her t-shirt back, but there was no telling what Azusa had done to it. That was a shame, it was the shirt with the lips and the lightning bolt, Yui really liked that shirt.

Suddenly, a sound broke her from her thoughts. The sound of _traffic_, a brief car horn going off.

Yui felt her heart swell, "I made it!" Sure enough there was only maybe another twenty minutes of forest to traverse before she made it back to something resembling civilization. Then she would have authorities or something go and hunt down the lost Azu-nyan.

In hindsight, leaving Azusa behind like that was _not _being a good senpai. But then again Azusa said she would just run away if Yui came after her, hence getting them both lost. That backwards logic on Azusa's part frustrated Yui. Azusa was behaving like such...such _a girl_!

The thought that kept Yui pressing on as day turned to night, was the possibility that Azusa would change her mind about what she said when her fever cleared. The things she had said had been downright delirious. Surely she hadn't had meant of any of that, or so Yui wanted to believe.

But Yui was stuck on how Azusa emphasized the word "selfish". Maybe she wasn't a completely righteous selfless saint, but Yui didn't think she was a very selfish person. She let the elderly take her seat on buses and trains, she let Ui have the last piece of cake if the situation warranted, she carried her friend through the woods while tending to her fever and lending her various articles of clothes to stem off the infection. Yet somehow, Yui was selfish.

"I hope Azu-nyan is doing better without a selfish person holding her back." Yui sighed to herself. She then proceeded to focus all of her energy into figuring out how she was selfish, and how she could fix it.

**AZU-NYAN; DOING BETTER?**

Azusa had to admit, maybe Yui _had _been right in going the other way. This part of the woods was a spiderweb of crisscrossing trails that led in every direction. Since she had no idea which one went where, she just chose them at random. It didn't take long for her to get lost. The sun was quickly setting, and she was alone.

However, at least she could breath a sigh of relief knowing that she didn't have to worry about Yui doing anything inappropriate. Her senpai had done a good job feigning confusion, but she saw past that. Yui, and the problems that came with her, should be left for Ui to deal with; Azusa didn't do anything to deserve having to carry that burden.

Her thoughts were broken as her foot snagged against a renegade tree root, and sent her flying forward. Azusa hit the ground hard, and winced as the skin on her elbows was burned away. Natural reflex kicked in, and she expected Yui to be hovering over her wanting to kiss it better or something.

"Oh, yeah." Azusa muttered, Yui was gone for good now. She gritted her teeth at the pain, and stood up again. The front part of her shirt was caked with dirt, and she had torn holes in the knees of her jeans. The Azusa Solo Project was not off to a good start.

In the distance, she could hear the baying of wild dogs. Azusa didn't quite have a fear of dogs, but the thought of wild vicious dogs at night terrified her. Maybe it wasn't too late to go back... Then another thought hit her, what if those dogs were really _werewolfs_. If that were the case, then she would be the star of a new fairy tale. One called _Bloodied Red Azu-nyan_.

Despite her aching head and fever, she knew the chances of Yui's apparel coming to life and attacking her were slim to none. That didn't eliminate the threat of the wild dogs though. More immediately, her head was burning up and she had left Yui's shirt far behind her. Things certainly were not going her way.

Even considering what Yui had put her through, Azusa couldn't help but wonder how her senpai was fairing alone. No doubt angry that her sick, twisted plan had failed, whatever it may have been. Still, the woods could be a dangerous place, especially at night. And Azusa didn't want Yui to get hurt, just to stay at least 100 meters away from her at all times from now on. At least until she could prove to Azusa that her hormones were under control.

The howling got louder, but there was a bit of good news with that. Azusa now knew that it had only been one dog barking, instead of multiple ones. It was funny how echoes work. The bad news was that she could now see the large doberman ahead of her, maybe twenty meters away.

"N-nice doggy." Azusa said, trying to sound as nonthreatening as she could. It didn't look happy to see her.

**YUI MAKES A DECISION**

The lights of the city were in view now. Yui could walk back to her house in under 30 minutes, home in time to make it for dinner... but something felt wrong. She didn't have anyone to share this feeling of achievement with. If only Azusa had held out another twenty minutes, then she could have seen for herself that Yui hadn't had been lying.

The road head split into two directions. Left leading home, right leading to another road that Azusa would come out to eventually; if she didn't get _too _lost. Two paths, one decision. Home to Ui where it was warm, where food and Gitah were waiting for her. Or to Azusa, where it was dark and scary, where she would meet someone who didn't want to see her, but needed her help, like it or not.

The decision was really testing if Yui was truly selfish or not. A rebellious part of her wanted to say, "Fuck you, I'll show you selfish", and just walk home; eat food, write a song, then go to bed _with her clothes on_. But 17 years of niceness couldn't be undone by one bad night. Yui turned right then began jogging along a lonely darkened road.

"I'm coming Azu-nyan!"

**STILL SEARCHING...**

"We're close to home." Mio noted, sure enough there was only about twenty minutes left in their drive. However, Ritsu had made a wrong turn a few minutes ago. Now they were heading towards a dead end where less reputable kids hung out.

"Did they really beat us there?" Ritsu asked in disbelief, "Maybe they got a ride from someone? Still sucks to know we wasted all that time and money for nothing."

"What if something bad happened to them?" Mio worriedly asked.

"Like what?" Tsumugi blinked.

"Like if they got a ride from the wrong person!" Mio answered.

"Then they would just get out and keep walking, right?" Tsumugi asked, not quite understanding what "the wrong person" meant.

"Sure, Tsumugi, sure." Mio sighed and patted the confused keyboardist on the shoulder. In the dim light they could almost make out someone apparently jogging down the side of the road in a black sweater-like thing that was too big for them.

"Mugi-chan, let's play a prank on that person." Ritsu said, barely able to contain her excitement. She fished a brown paper bag out of the glove box and handed it to Tsumugi, "Blow this up, and when we drive by pop it so it sounds like a gunshot!"

"Why would we want to do that?" Tsumugi asked.

"Less talking, more blowing!" Ritsu retorted, Mio was barely able to stifle laughter, "Don't say it!"

Tsumugi had the brown paper bag blown up in seconds, then rolled down the window for her attack...

**WORST. DRIVE BY. EVER**

Yui blinked in surprise when someone driving by threw a brown paper bag at her. She picked it up, and crammed it into the deep pockets of her hoodie; doing her part in the battle against litter. What caught her attention was how she could have swore she heard a familiar voice shout, "Mugi-chan, that sucked!"

**BACK TO AZUSA**

So things weren't going well for her. Azusa was reluctant to admit it, but staying with Yui would have probably been a better idea. Sure there was the risk of losing her purity, but it sure beat the risk of getting seriously hurt. Or lost in the woods forever, there was still that option, and it looked more and more realistic by the passing minute.

She staggered on, her fever making every step a dizzy nightmare. There had to be a way out, _there had to be_. Her left arm throbbed with pain, that doberman had gotten a lucky nip out of her before a few swift kicks to its mouth sent it scampering off. It didn't _look _rabid, just really territorial and pissed off.

Before she could even realize where she was, the forest had ended and she was standing at the side of some very littered stretch of road that wound throughout the hills. Azusa heaved a shaky sigh of relief, she was out of the woods...but not out of the woods yet. Now she had to decide whether or not to go left or right.

"Wait, I know where this is..." Azusa realized. Jun had told her about it once or twice. It was a stretch of road that high school kids for the less-esteemed schools hung out on. Azusa felt just a little more hopeful, maybe some seniors for her school would be driving down and see her. It was possible.

However, she didn't know which way she had come out from. So left or right was as good a chance as any. Azusa shrugged and went right, walking away from the four people coming to find her.

**THE AZUYUI RESCUE TEAM FAILS AGAIN**

"Should we pull a prank on her!" Tsumugi asked and pointed at the petite girl with black hair and dark clothes staggering down the side of the road. Even if she had completely messed up the last one, she felt confident she could redeem herself.

"No, she's obviously drunk." Ritsu said with a shake of her head, "Drunk people can be dangerous. I wouldn't want to explain to my parents why there's bullet holes all in their car."

"You'll have enough trouble explaining to them why the odometer has over a hundred kilometers added to it." Mio reminded her.

"I told you, I can find out how to fix that on the internet." Ritsu grumbled, "Although the claw marks on the hood from those cats is going to be hard to explain..."

**A FOURTH PARTY**

Azusa's parents had been more surprised than anything else to learn that Azusa had disappeared with her upperclassmen Hirasawa Yui. Azusa seemed like a better girl than that, no that wasn't right; the _knew _Azusa was better than that.

Sawako had calmly explained to them what had happened, and they listened with open minds. But they were a little discouraged to hear that there had been no word from the Tokyo police about their daughter. There was still the chance that Azusa and her friend Yui were more than merely lost.

So the two of them figured it was worth checking the local hangout spots. There first destination would be that barren road that kids street raced, and did all kinds of other questionable acts. There were occasionally tailgate parties that lasted days during breaks by some of the less reputable kids. They weren't expecting to find Azusa there, but maybe some leads at least.

**AZUSA MEETS SOME LESS REPUTABLE PEOPLE**

Azusa had attempted raising her thumb to the car that had just passed her, but no luck. All of a sudden she agreed with Yui, people who didn't pick up cute girls sucked. _No, I better choose my words carefully. I don't want to curse myself. Who am I kidding? I'm already cursed, but at least the damage has all been done right? I can't imagine anything else going horrible wrong._

Step after step she went on, feeling strangely empty inside. Her burning head, her aching legs, that feeling of loneliness, it was all shoved into the back of her mind, like it wasn't important anymore. Once she got home, then everything would be fine, and she was _so _close. Maybe after this was all done, she would write a song or something about it. The thought of how her Long Way Home was almost over made each step just a little more bearable.

Azusa saw the headlights of a car in the distance. Her spirit lifted just a bit and she prepared to raise her thumb. As it got closer she could hear loud "gangster" rap playing from its speakers. _Oh thank God it's not metal! _Then again, she didn't particularly like that music either. She didn't know which she would choose if given the choice. Someone screaming about death and sex with dead people, or some guy talking to a beat about how much money _she _didn't have.

Her thumb shot up, and much to her surprise, _they actually pulled over_. The music was still going loud and heavy, but at least they stopped. The passenger side window opened and some older high school boy waved at her, "'Sup?"

"Oh thank god I found someone, I've been wandering down this road for like twenty minutes because my friend got me lost in some woods!" Azusa frantically said, "I just need a ride back to town."

The guy on the passenger side turned to the driver and said something. The driver killed the engine then stepped out of the car. He leaned against the hood of the sedan and smiled to Azusa. It was a smile she didn't like. The two of them were obviously drunk by the smell of liquor radiating off of them, that and the bittersweet smell of pot smoke.

_You've got to be kidding..._ Azusa thought, apparently normal, clearheaded, responsible people didn't exist in this world. _No, they're just all home already or playing videogames or something. They to stop playing Starcraft 2 and come help me! Wait...that game's not out yet. Why am I thinking about this!_

"Good evening, ma'am." The driver slurred to Azusa. She immediately grimaced and flinched away from his drunk demeanor. "You said you needed a ride back to the city?"

"I...uh...I'll just wait for someone else to happen along. I wouldn't want to bother you two any more than I already have." Azusa said, and bowed. She hoped they wouldn't notice how bad she looked, muddy, bloody, pale. To the right paranoid person, she must have looked like a zombie. Getting shot in the head because she looked like the undead sounded particularly unfun.

"Nonsense." The driver said with a creepy smile, "It'd be our pleasure to take you back."

Then the passenger spoke up, "Hey man, we're not a charity, she should have to pay."

That somehow relieved Azusa, "Oh, I left my wallet in my...other pants." Technically true, "So I'm short on cash, ah well. I better get going then."

The passenger stepped back and whispered something to the driver. Azusa couldn't make out what they were saying, but the driver looked noticeably uncomfortable. He finally spoke loud enough for her to hear, "I dunno man, imagine if we got caught."

Azusa prayed to all 8 million spirits that he was talking about drug trafficking or something.

"Dude, we're on a barren stretch of road on a school night. Who the fuck is going to find us?" The passenger snapped back.

Azusa was beyond a little worried now, "I'm just going to go now...thanks anyways."

"Sure, bye, whatever." The driver muttered and went to walk back into the car. The passenger stopped him.

"Remember why we drove all the way out here in the first place? Well now's your chance." The passenger whispered loudly to him. He turned to face Azusa who was backing away, "You're short on money, huh? Well I know a way you could pay us."

"N-no thanks, I'll just walk home...I, er, need the exercise." Azusa stuttered, wishing more than ever she had stayed with Yui.

"You're going the wrong way." He smirked. Azusa realized they had been driving towards town while she had been walking away from it.

"R-right, I knew that." Azusa lied then slowly began walking in the other direction, past their car.

"Do you really want to walk all the way home? It would take you probably an hour or two." He asked again, "Just one little favor for us and you could be there in minutes. I wouldn't want to be out late if I were you, this road can be dangerous."

"I'll brave it." Azusa told him, feeling her at the verge of tears from fear. Her walk became more staggered as she slowly passed them.

She nearly screamed as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "No, I don't think you understand. You don't want to be out here late, _it's dangerous_."

Azusa shoved the passenger's , the more malicious of the two, hand off her shoulder and began a full blown sprint away from him. With her current weakened state, she didn't manage to get far fast. The high school senior's foot steps were fast behind her. Tears were flowing freely now, as she ran for what she believed could very well could be her life.

The man's hand grabbed her wrist from behind, and pulled hard. Azusa felt the ground disappear from under her as she fell backwards, her head hitting the ground hard enough to make her see black stars against the white ones in the night sky above. She was only prone for a second before she started frantically crawling away. Her pursuer grabbed the back of her shirt's collar. Azusa felt herself choking only briefly before her shirt that Yui had bought was torn away from her body. She didn't have any real attachment to it, but it still felt bad to see it go. Then there was the whole, _I just had my shirt torn off by some crazy guy on the side of a barren road _aspect of the situation, which was rather terrifying.

_No, it can't end like this! No! _Her terrified mind pleaded to whatever hand of fate that was listening. Unfortunately, this drunk teenager was hellbent on having his way with her. The fact that he probably outweighed her by a fifty kilos and was nearly a foot taller didn't really help her cause.

Before she even realized what was happening, she was on her back and her arms were pinned by this guy. In the distance, she heard his friend pleading half-heartedly something along the lines of, "Hey man, don't do that. If you do that then I'm going to just leave you here man. Are you listening?"

His friend certainly was not listening.

Azusa closed her eyes, looked away, and hoped she could somehow find a way to escape what was to come.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

A horrible fate has befallen our beloved Azu-nyan! Will she be rescued in time? Will her and Yui finally reconcile and possibly end up as more than friends? Will Tsumugi finally be able to pull a prank successfully? Will I snap, re-rate this story M, and have everyone die at the end...probably not. All that and more in the next chapter.


	9. Endings And New Beginnings

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 9- ENDINGS AND NEW BEGINNINGS**

I was half tempted to wait like two weeks before starting this chapter, just to mess with the people who were taken back by the cliff hanger; but then I realized that I actually like writing this. Anyways, in my footnotes at the end of this chapter I'll attempt to defend my position of why the story took such a dark turn (I wouldn't really call it a twist). In other news, with that last chapter came my first legitimately bad review. I managed to go around 150 before getting a bad one, so I'm not really bothered in any way.

**SELFISH YUI CONTINUES TO BE SELFISH**

Azusa wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next, or more so, she didn't want to think of what would happen next. She had once read about rape victims escaping into a sort of "Raspberry Heaven" dream world. If this was the case, that he was going to have his way with her, that didn't sound all that bad.

_**BANG!**_

__"Fuck, run!" The driver, the companion of the guy nearly on top of Azusa, screamed, "I fucking told you that was a bad idea, someone has a gun!"

The high school boy was off of Azusa in an instant, running back to the car. He stopped briefly and asked his friend, "You sure that was gun and not some faggot lighting off firecrackers or something?"

"Dude, I know what a gun sounds like. It was .45, let's get the hell out of here!" His friend replied. Within seconds, Azusa watched their car go speeding away. She slowly stood up, and with shaking hands brushed away the grass and dirt from her jeans. Here she was, only wearing dirty torn up jeans and a sky blue bra. But at least she came out of that relatively unscathed. One moment she was more terrified then she had ever been, and now it was over as quickly as it had started.

She nearly screamed when she felt someones arms wrap around her from behind. However, the embrace was soft, and the intention was good. Azusa recognized that hug in a heartbeat.

"Yui-senpai, w-what are you doing here!" Azusa gasped, more surprised than anything. She casually shrugged off the hug and turned to meet her senpai face to face.

"I came back to come get you. I was afraid that you would get lost, so I ran all the here." Yui replied, she was out of breath from running the whole way, but seemed pretty much like her normal self, "It's a good thing I got here in time, huh?"

"Wait, was that gunshot from you? Where did you get a gun!" Azusa frantically asked.

"Gun?" Yui blinked in confusion, after moment she understood what Azusa was referring to, "_Ohhh_, you mean this?" With that she pulled a crumpled, now torn, brown paper bag from her pocket, "I just blew this up and popped it, I was hoping it would get those guys attention so I could tell them to leave you alone. I didn't think it would scare them off."

"But what if they tried to..." Azusa gulped then instantly rephrased what she was about say, "...'hurt' you?"

Yui shrugged and smiled, "If it gave you time to get away to safety, then I guess it would be worth it. That's what friends do, right?"

_I was wrong...Yui-senpai was looking out for me the whole time. _Azusa finally realized. Looking back, there were some events that were still a bit sketchy, but all of a sudden Azusa was ready to hear the other side of the story. _She was never lost, she knew exactly where we were going. Then I said all those awful things to her, and she still came back for me! She risked horrible things happening to her, just to make sure I was safe. Why did I ever think you were selfish Yui-senpai? _

"I'm so sorry, Yui-senpai." Azusa choked out through the tears that were forming. They weren't tears of sadness, they were a mixture of happiness and guilt all thrown into one.

"Don't worry about it, Azu-nyan. I'm just trying my best to be a good senpai." Yui proudly told her. Then in a sadder tone, she said, "But...I want to know if I'm still selfish. I don't want to be selfish anymore."

"You're not selfish!" Azusa cried and threw her arms around Yui. The older guitarist held the younger one as she let all it all out. _God damned it, I've never been so wrong about anything in my life. Yui-senpai being in love doesn't mean she would do reckless selfish things. It means she would do anything to make sure I was safe and sound. All without thanks or praise too. _

"Azu-nyan," Yui said, barely able to contain her own tears of happiness, "Ready to go home?"

"J-just one thing..." Azusa said with a deep breath. She needed a moment to compose herself before saying what was on her mind. _If being in love made Yui-senpai do all those great things for me, maybe it's not a bad thing. Maybe it's not something I should be afraid of. Maybe it's something that I should encourage, or maybe even give her something in return...but what? _Azusa knew the answer instantly, _My own love, that's what._

"Are you okay, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked after Azusa stayed silent for a few minutes.

Azusa finally looked back up into Yui's eyes, "Yui-senpai...I want to...I want to love you too!"

In all honesty, Hirasawa Yui had never been in love with Azusa. Every conclusion that Azusa had made about it had been the product of her over thinking. Yui did love Azusa, but not in a romantic way. So when Azusa said what she said, Yui didn't have a reply more intelligent than, "What?"

Azusa replied by raising one hand behind Yui's neck, then bringing their lips together into one passionate kiss lead by the younger guitarist. Yui was completely surprised at first, but didn't object, she let her lips stay where they were. Her sisterly love for Azusa quickly turned to a romantic kind of love without any hesitation.

After only a few seconds, they pulled away. Both of them felt their bodies trembling from their new experience, and their hearts both were fluttering, leaving them feeling as light as air.

"Take care of me forever, Yui-senpai." Azusa whispered, and gently kissed Yui on the lips again. When she pulled away, she could still feel that sensation on her lips, she was almost tempted to wipe her arm against against her lips to see if the sensation would go away. But she decided it was fine the way it was.

Yui, on the other hand, was still more surprised than anything. She hadn't ever expected Azu-nyan to do something like that, but it certainly wasn't unwelcome. As far as first kisses when, Yui didn't think hers could have been any better. She went to say something, but was stopped by Azusa's lips on hers again.

This time it was much more passionate, with their tongues brushing together. It was awkward for them at first, but soon felt natural. They stood there under the moonlight, both wishing that their kiss could last eternity.

It was the honking of a car horn that broke them apart. Azusa's heart skipped a beat, or three, and she was briefly afraid that those two guys had come back. Luckily, she could see past the headlights that it was a different car. It was..._her parents._

"Oh...no...not now." Azusa groaned, and held Yui tighter. Ten minutes ago that would have been the most welcome sight in the world, but now it was something to be afraid of. She couldn't imagine how this must look to them. Her, missing her shirt, kissing another girl on the side of some filthy street.

"Do you know those people?" Yui asked, sounding a little worried, and protective at the same time.

"It's my parents." Azusa whispered to her. Yui wasn't sure how to react to that.

"_Azusa, _get over here right now!" Azusa's mother screamed from the road.

Azusa reluctantly let Yui go and trudged up to the road, "I'm here mother, I-"

She was interrupted instantly, "Do you have any idea how worried you left your father and I! We were afraid that you were lost in Tokyo, and I couldn't believe your father suggested we look here."

"You're too smart to get lost." Her father said from the sidelines, "I didn't expect to actually find you here, but it seemed like a good start."

"It's not like that, we got on the wrong bus and-" Azusa desperately tried to say.

"But here you are on the side of this filthy road, kissing _some girl_!" Her mother interrupted, "And just where the hell is your shirt! And those pants, they're completely ruined."

"Mother I-" Azusa once again tried to say.

"No, I don't want to hear it. Get in the car, there's going to be hell to pay when you get home!" Her mother snapped, then lead her just a tad bit forcefully into the backseat.

Yui slowly waved as they drove off, feeling a little confused. A moment ago she had been in the middle of the single happiest moment of her life. Now she was alone again, but at least she knew that Azusa didn't hate her. Azusa didn't just not hate her, she _loved _her. And as far as Yui was concerned, she loved Azusa back. That thought made her heart swell with happiness again, so much that she wanted to jump and cheer.

Just as she was about to do that, _another _car pulled up the side of the road. Before Yui could react; Ritsu, Mio, and Tsumugi were all running towards her with smiles on their faces.

"We found you!" Ritsu cheered.

"Yui-chan, we looked every where for you!" Tsumugi cheerfully added. Pickles the Cat meowed from behind her.

"Where's Azusa?" Was Mio's question.

Yui let herself be hugged violently by Tsumugi and Ritsu, barely reacting at all. Her brain was still fried from kissing Azusa like that, it would take much cake to get her in a normal state again.

"You all came looking for me?" Yui asked after they let go of her, "How did you know to find me here?"

"We didn't." Ritsu admitted, "We haven't slept in over a day, we've been driving all over the place looking for you."

"And here you are!" Tsumugi added.

"Here I am." Yui giggled, "Thanks everyone, I don't know how I'll ever be able to pay you back!"

"You can start by telling us where Azusa is." Mio replied, her tone was extremely impatient. After being in a car for nearly 24 hours, she didn't have any patience left. She was glad they found Yui still in one piece, but she wasn't jumping with joy.

"Her parents found her and took her home just before you showed up." Yui replied.

"So how did you end up here anyways?" Ritsu asked her.

"I'll tell you on the way home." Yui told them

**MUGI'S REDEMPTION**

Tsumugi was surprised by herself when she realized that she was still pretty bummed out about botching that drive-by prank. Ritsu had placed her trust in her to achieve some potential laughs, and Tsumugi had failed her. Yui was telling her tale while Tsumugi was busy trying to think of some way to redeem her hurt pride.

Then it hit her, a way to get Ritsu back on her side, although Mio would have to be used as a sacrifice. Given the circumstances, Tsumugi knew it was worth it. She had thought over past pranks she had pulled, and scaring people was her forte.

"Ricchan, pull over real quick!" Tsumugi cried from the backseat, effectively interrupting Yui's recounting of the events that took place over the last few days. Ritsu slowly veered the car to the side of the road and put it into neutral. The first part of her plan was effectively in action now.

"What's up, Mugi-chan?" Ritsu turned around and asked her.

"I think I saw something." Tsumugi replied with a bit of false worry in her voice, "It looked like a hurt animal or something, can I go see what it is?"

"Sure, just don't be too long." Ritsu answered. Tsumugi nodded and set phase two of her plan in to motion.

"Mio-chan, would you please come with me so I'm not alone?" Tsumugi politely asked the bassist.

"W-why me?" Mio replied in surprise.

"Because..." Damn, she hadn't had considered that element, "Yui-chan has been through a lot already and shouldn't be on her feet, and Ricchan needs all her focus for driving."

"Sure." Mio shrugged, willing to believe the ruse. Phase two complete. Mio followed Tsumugi to the side of the road, and reluctantly took her place beside her.

"Do you see it?" Tsumugi asked, and pointed to a particularly dark shadow at the base of a tree. While Mio was squinting to see it, Tsumugi silently stepped behind her. Phase three initiated.

"I don't see anything." Mio said, obviously not amused by being pulled out into the dark for this.

"It just moved!" Tsumugi whispered loudly. Sure enough, Mio was diverting more attention seeing what Tsumugi was talking about.

"Are you sure it's not just a shadow, how did you see this from the car anyways?" Mio asked, her patience quickly diminishing. It was time to finish phase three.

"_Knife in your back!_" Tsumugi screamed in Mio's ear and shook her violently. Mio's reaction was sadly anti-climatic

All she did was faint at Tsumugi's feet, and would awake with no recollection of what happened. However, not really to Tsumugi's satisfaction, the burst of surprise ended with Mio wetting herself.

**REUNITED AT LAST**

Hirasawa Ui decided that the last three days had been possibly the worst ones in her life. She was still covered in bruises from the concert, which had been extremely brutal to her. Then there was the awkwardness of having to share a room with Sawako in a hotel while her sister and friend were missing. The blackouts had made things worse, but at least her house had power now.

It was the second night in a row that she had to make dinner for one. She didn't realize how empty the place was with Yui lost. That thought had eradicated any hope of getting a full night sleep she had.

School hadn't had been much better. Somehow someone had found out that her sister and Azusa had gotten lost. Sawako hadn't had said a word, so it was mystery to Ui how exactly that information had leaked. Then people had started a few rumors that her sister had purposely run away with Azusa, among other things. Ui knew that wasn't the case though, or at least she _hoped _that wasn't the case. Why would her sister run away anyway? Especially without Gitah.

She sighed as her sukiyaki finished cooking, making sukiyaki had never been that depressing. It was just too quiet, the place felt like a necropolis with Yui gone. Gitah, and an open scalebook where still on the floor where Yui had left them.

Ui left her food alone for a moment, then picked up Gitah. Yui had proudly taught her how to read scales, so Ui had no problem playing a few of them to get rid of that silence. She stopped after playing a basic D scale, because the tips of her fingers felt like they were being sliced apart. How her sister could play for hours was beyond her.

She got up and went to go set the table for just herself. Just out of habit, she grabbed two bowels and pairs of chopsticks. Without thinking, she placed them down.

"Sukiyaki! Thanks Ui!" Yui cheered and eagerly awaited that iron pot of wonders to make its way to the table.

"You're welcome, Onee-chan." Ui said without thinking. As she was placing the food down on the table, something in her brain finally clicked, _Wait a second..._, "Onee-chan!"

Sure enough, Yui was back. She was sitting contently on the couch with a some black zipped sweatshirt which had a rather messy graphic on the front. Ui didn't care about that though, she was too overwhelmed with relief to care. Ui grabbed her sister and hugged her as hard as she could. Yui squeaked in surprise, but could understand Ui's action; and eagerly returned it. Ui's next reaction was a bit more surprising, she kissed Yui on the lips out of sheer happiness. It was more her just mashing her lips against Yui's than an actual kiss, and it certainly wasn't romantic. Yui would mentally note that she had been kissed on the lips that day by two different girls.

"I was so worried about you, what happened?" Ui asked, tears of relief streaming down her face.

"I don't know even where to begin." Yui said with a guilty smile, and scratched the back of her head, "We got lost after the concert, then ended up getting lost on our way to Tokyo Tower, which was no one's fault mind you. After that we tried to get a ride home the next day by some guy, but he left us at a gas station. Mio-chan said he did it on purpose, because she met him at store and he said so. Then we had to walk all the way home."

"You had to walk all the way home!" Ui gasped.

"Well not _all the way_, Ritsu and the others gave me a ride at the very end." Yui told her, "Oh yeah, Mugi-chan got a new cat too! It bit me though..."

Ui wiped her tears away, then took the role of responsibility again, "Okay, after dinner you need a bath. You smell unclean."

"Can I save the bath for tomorrow?" Yui asked with the best puppy eyes she could manage, "I want to go to sleep after eating."

"I don't know Onee-chan, hold on someones at the door." Ui said, indeed the doorbell was ringing.

"I got it!" Yui exclaimed and jumped out of her seat to go run downstairs. Ui didn't want to see the look on the visitors face when they saw Yui in her less-than-perfect state. Her hair was frazzled, the smell of sweat, and faded pot smoke was rather predominant, and her clothes desperately needed a proper washing. She looked and smelled more or less like the author of this story did most of the time.

Yui opened the door, and was surprised to find Azusa standing there, looking particularly upset about something, "Hiya Azu-yan. Um, what are you doing here so late?"

"My parents..." Azusa sniffled, "We had a big argument, they didn't believe anything I told them about what happened. They thought I just ran off with you to go party and stuff, and then they saw us...you know..."

"Did they disown you?" Yui asked, and gently wiped a stray tear from Azusa' cheek. Azusa was taken back by the extremely direct question, but realized it was fair.

"Not...exactly." Azusa vaguely answered, "They said that as long as I was in their house, I would be able to see anyone from the Light Music Club ever again. So...I kind of left." They had mostly emphasized on her not seeing Yui, but Azusa didn't really believe that detail needed to be noted.

"You're always welcome here." Yui told her, and lead her inside where it was warm and there was food.

"Azusa-chan, you're okay too!" Ui exclaimed when she saw Azusa. She didn't look perfect, she had put on a clean shirt, but still had her dirty jeans, and there was a bandage on her left arm. No supplies for spending the night though.

"Azu-nyan is going to be our guest tonight." Yui told her, "She's having um...family problems, and needs to get away for a while."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ui remarked, "You're welcome to stay here though. I'll get the spare bed out after dinner. Oh, I hope there's enough!" There was plenty, she had subconsciously cooked for two again.

"I'm sorry for imposing." Azusa quietly said with a bow, "I'll try not to be a burden. Are you sure it's okay though?"

"It's fine." Yui assured her, "Mom and dad are visiting friends in South Korea, they won't be back for a few days."

"They sure do like traveling don't they?" Azusa asked, the question was meant to be rhetorical. She was amazed at how casual everything seemed to be even after everything that had happened.

"Yeah they do, they've been nearly everywhere." Yui replied.

"Except Canada." Ui noted.

"Well, duh, no one goes to Canada." Yui smirked.

"Even I have to agree with you there." Azusa said, "I couldn't imagine visiting a country where you have to worry about being attacked by a moose."

"Not to mention their exchange rate is really weird. You have trade all your yen for maple leaves or something." Yui told her. Azusa wasn't sure how much of that she believed. "Oh yeah, they don't have cars either."

"Then how do they get around?" Azusa asked.

"Polar bears!" Yui told her with an excited wave of her arms. "Polar bears with guns to fend off the Canucks' fans that attack you. They're mad because their team always loses."

"R-really?" Azusa blinked, she wasn't sure how much of that was true. Probably not very much.

Dinner was finished quickly with the three of them going at it, but it was filling enough. After eating nothing all day, both Yui and Azusa thought it was a gift sent from God; or whatever deity pleases the reader. Ui noticed an unspoken communication, her sister was strangely silent; and the two of them kept looking at each other back and forth in a weird way that Ui couldn't pick up on. Yui detailed some events of their walk home, but Azusa would quickly interject and tell the correct version of the story. Ui didn't think that was necessary, she could tell that her sister hadn't had fought any werewolves; that word showed up several times in conversation. Werewolf was an allegory for rapist by the way.

"Onee-chan, you really need to take a bath!" Ui told her sister after their meal, and held her nose closed to emphasize her point.

"What about Azu-nyan, do we have enough time for both us to take one tonight?" Yui asked.

"There's plenty of time for you both to have one, especially since there's no school tomorrow." Ui replied, much to Yui's disdain. She was a bit happy that there was no school, but she couldn't exactly remember why that was. Some holiday or something. "I'm sorry, but I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm going to be early, Onee-chan. I really missed you though."

"I missed you too!" Yui said and gave her sister a hug that made her gag.

"Bath. Now." Ui choked, and practically shoved Yui into the washroom. Azusa was already there, brushing her teeth with Yui's tooth brush. She saw Yui go tumbling past her from the mirror, but didn't react. Azusa rinsed her mouth, stretched, then turned around to see an interesting sight.

"Yui-senpai, why are you naked!" Azusa yelped when she saw Yui with her clothes around her feet.

"I gotta take a bath." Yui told her, "Are you going to take one too?"

"Y-yeah." Azusa stuttered, feeling all the blood in her body rush to her head. _This is not the time for a nosebleed! _

"You can take one with me, it saves water or something." Yui suggested, which could be taken as flirtatious or not.

"That'd be great." Azusa said, feeling extremely out of body. Her mind hadn't had completely figured out what the relationship between her and Yui was exactly, but she wasn't shying away from her body like she had at the hotel. _She's so beautiful, and her skin looks so smooth. It's so flawless that it's starting to make me dizzy, not a single imperfection. I wonder what it would feel like if I ran my fingers down her back?_

Yui, still naked, slipped out of the washroom and quickly returned with two sets of clothes for each of them. Azusa had left her home in such a haste that she hadn't had brought anything of her own. Azusa was dressed down by the time Yui returned, she was trying desperately not to compare herself to her senpai.

"Yes, Azu-nyan." Yui replied to a question that Azusa didn't remember asking.

"Huh?" Azusa blinked.

"You are pretty, you're very very pretty." Yui told her, Azusa realized she was referring to the question she had asked back at the hotel.

"I...am?" Azusa blushed.

"Yes, and it makes me very happy to know you love me like you do. You could have anyone you wanted I bet." Yui answered in complete honesty. She then turned and began drawing water for their bath. Azusa felt herself melt at that answer, it almost made her want to cry from happiness. A pang of guilt struck her when she remembered what she had said to Yui earlier that day. _Yet you still stayed with me, Yui-senpai..._

Azusa walked behind Yui and wrapped her arms around her waist, then gently kissed the side of her neck, "That's because you're the only one who deserves my love. You did so many amazing things for me, and I took it all for granted, and it almost cost me everything."

Yui laced her fingers with Azusa's, but remained silent. She really had no idea how to reply to that statement, romantic talk was still very new for her. Their bath was like any other, or like the one they had taken at their training camp. Nothing happened, besides idle chatter from Yui. It amazed Azusa how Yui could act like nothing had ever happened, which she supposed was a good thing.

"Let me go get the other futon out..." Yui said after they were fully dried and clothed. Azusa placed a hand on Yui's shoulder to stop her.

"Your bed is big enough for both of us." Azusa told her, it took a second for Yui to catch on to what she was suggesting.

"Do I still have to follow those rules you set?" Yui asked as they were walking hand in hand into her bedroom.

"Look at it this way, Yui-senpai..." Azusa began, then took a seat on the edge Yui's bed with her, "...My parents are going to be very upset with me when they find out where I went tonight. I don't know when the next time we'll get another chance to be together like this will be. So what I'm trying to say is- If you don't break those rules, then I will. Let's make this night count."

Yui didn't really know how to be romantic, so she just copied what she saw in movies in manga. She grabbed Azusa by her wrists and practically threw her on her back, then hopped on top of her. Azusa saw that as a suitable way to begin their night together.

**A COUPLE HOURS LATER**

With their rooms being adjacent, sound carried well between Ui and Yui's room. Ui was sound asleep when she heard Azusa or Yui, one of them, giggling in the other room. The clock said it was just after midnight, so it wasn't _too _late. Ui yawned, and rolled over to go back to sleep. The noise didn't stop.

Ui got up and stretched, then walked out into the hallway. Surely they would respect her desire for sleep, and try to be more quiet if she just asked. She was curious to exactly what they were doing, the fact that Yui had just yelped wasn't making her curiosity go away. Without knocking, she opened the door.

"Onee-chan, can you please be a bit more-" Her sentence was cut off when she saw the scene in front of her. Yui's clothes were spread across the floor, along with Azusa's; and they were both in the same bed...naked...kissing..._naked and kissing. _Then Ui saw just where Azusa's fingers were.

"She fainted." Azusa gasped as Ui's body crumpled onto the floor. Considering the circumstances, that was probably a good thing.

**IT TOOK A LOT OF WILLPOWER TO NOT MAKE THIS A LEMON**

Probably not the strongest ending out of any story ever. But I still have an epilogue kind of chapter planned next. I hope this counts as a happy ending though. They got home in one piece, Yui and Azusa are now together, and they'll probably tell Ui what she saw was just a dream.

In my own defense of the angstyness of the story towards the end, I believe it was needed. I wanted a dark schism between Azusa and Yui so their reconcile would be much more enjoyable at the end. As for what happened to Azusa, I wanted Azusa in a situation so horribly wretched, that Yui rescuing her would kickstart her feelings into love. I could have probably had the romantic element in there without that, but I think it made it just a teeny bit more believable. Hey, I could have made that whole "almost raped" part a lot worse.

Anyways, the next chapter kind of patches everything up with everyone. How Azusa's parents continue to deal with everything that happened, the Light Music Club's reaction to their love, stuff resembling the first three chapters. Overall it just wraps the story up in a way that this chapter couldn't.

Thanks for reading.


	10. Sakura Warhearts

**The work, which becomes a new genre itself, will be called...**

**LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 10- SAKURA WARHEARTS**

Mission statement for this chapter- Tie up a few loose ends, and wrap up the whole "metal" subplot I had going for a while in a way that sticks in character and may get a few chuckles from people. I know I've been focusing on that a lot, but I do it because metal and K-on are polar opposites. There's more room for creativity and lulz when you combine the two. This chapter is also lengthy, it's the longest one yet because anything shorter would be cheating the reader. Plus I have to cover all the fluff, them practicing for a concert, playing a concert, and the events afterwords. So I think this is the longest chapter I've written for any story on this site.

And of course; more Yui and Azusa.

**A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER.**

"It's been two weeks since Azu-nyan and I got home from our trip to Tokyo. We were afraid for awhile, with the way her parents were. But Azu-nyan is really smart, she told her parents that I was admitted to a juvenile correction facility to be lobotomized or something. If Azu-nyan wants to spend the night at my house, she just tells her parents that she's going to visit Ui. Ui is still okay in their eyes, which is a really good thing. Oh, and then there's-"

"Yui-chan." Ritsu interrupted, "We know all this already."

"Oh yeah." Yui said, "Forgot that you were there for all of this."

"You two, stop chattering and get your instruments ready. Sawako-sensei is going to be here to fulfill that deal she made with you, Yui." Mio told them. Apparently Yui had made some deal with Sawako to make up for her and Azusa causing her so much worry. Mio was afraid that it was going to be something involving cosplay, but Sawako had specifically instructed them to have their instruments ready.

Azusa and Tsumugi quickly finished their tea and crossed the room to their own instruments.

"Greetings everyone." Sawako said with a bow as she entered the Light Music Club room, "You're probably all wondering why I called you here..."

"Not really." Ritsu shrugged.

"Shut up, yes you are!" Sawako unexpectedly snapped at the drummer, "Anyways, I have some good news and some even better news, and then some secret news. The good news is that I got you a gig at this venue downtown, the better news is that it's a battle of the bands kind of thing."

"What does that mean?" Azusa asked.

"It means that the winner has a chance at winning a record deal." Sawako proudly answered. Cheers broke out all around, followed by praise to their teacher for setting this. Sawako calmed them and went on, "However, you have a tough crowd to beat. A popular indie death metal band called _Tasteful Abortion _is playing, and they have an extremely devoted fanbase. The winner is decided by popular vote, so you're going to need to work hard to get the crowd on your side. So I'm afraid that your normal four song line up isn't going to cut it."

"Then what do we play?" Mio was the one to ask, "We have a few songs that we don't normally play in our live festivals. Should we play those?"

"There's a reason you don't play those songs." Sawako grimaced, "But no, Yui here is the one who gave me the suggestion."

"I did?" Yui blinked.

"Yes, remember our deal?" Sawako replied with an evil smile.

"Oh yeah..." Yui sweatdropped, she turned around and faced the rest of the band, "You see, to make up for the mistake me and Azusa made...Sawako gets to teach us all one metal song."

"Oh no..." Azusa groaned, "Not more metal."

"Hey!" Sawako shouted at her, "You haven't been truly exposed to it. Beyond magic, beyond sound, beyond good and evil, lies music so profound and powerful that even gods quake at its sound. This primal music- of unknown origin and no limitation to its power- it incomprehensible to the mortal ear. To some who hear a fragment of this music, it becomes beauty incarnate, and they devote their lives to its discovery. These seekers wield the power of music in ways that amaze even those most skilled musicians. This music is what we call... _metal_."

"Why did that all sound eerily familiar?" Ritsu asked, seemingly unaffected her the speech.

"It doesn't." Sawako grumbled in Ritsu's direction, she composed herself then spoke again, "Look, just give the genre one chance and see how it goes. All you need to do is play one song for the show and then you never have to deal with metal ever again. Besides, Yui owes me. Okay, Yui needs to learn to sweep pick to get this right. Azusa and Mio are going to learn to tremolo pick for minutes on end without any error. I have a double bass pedal for Ritsu here, she also is going to learn blast beats. Tsumugi...I'll just print out the score for your part later."

"Is it going to have any mezzoforte chords? Those are my favorite." Tsumugi asked in her normal bubbly demeanor.

"Maybe." Sawako curtly answered, she had sudden taken on the demeanor of a drill sergeant. "Okay, the show is in three weeks. You have the rest of the day to prepare yourselves before the training truly begins. One last things, Mio and Yui, you need to decided who is going to sing this. Whoever you choose will need to take a day to come with me and practice your new metal voices."

"What's wrong with our normal voices?" Mio asked.

"People won't buy it, your going to need to learn how to metaphorically rape your vocal chords to turn it into something beautiful." Sawako told her, then went to walk out of the room. When she was gone, all eyes were glaring menacingly at Yui. Except for Tsumugi's.

"We get to learn a new song? How fun!" Tsumugi happily exclaimed.

"Yui-senpai, why on earth did you agree to those terms?" Azusa asked, looking particularly unamused by what was in store for them.

"I wanted to make her happy." Yui shrugged, then threw an arm around Azusa, "Look on the bright side. We get to play in a show that can get us a record deal! What's one little metal song? With love on our side, we can defeat anything!"

"That's the third time you've said that. This week." Mio noted.

Ritsu scratched at her chin, "Come to think of it, you two have been a lot more friendly towards each other lately."

"It's nothing!" Azusa defensively shouted.

"I think two girls becoming closer like that is a wonderful thing." Tsumugi swooned, she was as clueless towards their relationship just like the others. Her comment was not meant to be taken romantically.

"It's nothing!" Azusa shouted again. Ritsu giggled, and went to take advantage of that.

"Hey, what's that you're wearing?" She asked.

"It's nothing!"

"Is that a new outfit?" Tsumugi joined in.

"It's nothing!"

"It's not really nothing is it?" Yui asked, looking extremely worried. No one but Azusa caught on to that.

"It is something!" Azusa shouted in that same defensive tone.

"_Oh_, so it is something?" Ritsu smirked, once again making no reference to the new found romance between Azusa and Yui. Because, like everyone else, she was clueless.

"It's nothing!"

"But you just said..." Yui muttered with that sad look on her face again.

"It is something!"

That went on for several more minutes until Mio finally broke in, "Tormenting Azusa like that looks fun and everything, but Yui and I needed to decide who will sing this song."

"But we don't even know what song it is!" Yui pointed out.

"True, we don't know whose voice is better suited for it." Mio agreed, "We'll put that on hold for now. Everyone should go home and start practicing the stuff that Sawako said we would be doing. Azusa, you and I will work on steady tremolo picking. Ritsu, learn what blast beats are and then figure them out. Yui, google how to sweep pick then master it."

"Yessir Sergeant!" Yui said with a salute.

"Well then that's that. Come on Ritsu, we have to go with Tsumugi to buy a collar for her new cat."

"Can I come!" Yui eagerly asked.

Tsumugi looked extremely guilty and conflicted, "One of my father's employees is going to drive us. There's no room left in his car for one more person, _I'm so sorry!_"

"It's okay." Yui assured her, "Pick out a cute one for me."

"But we don't need a collar for you...oh yeah, you mean the cat, okay we will!" Tsumugi replied after a moment of confusion. The three of them grabbed their things and went to go leave. Azusa and Yui stood there just looking at each other for a moment.

"It _is _something, right?" Yui asked, well, pleaded really.

"Of course it's something." Azusa assured her, "I was just trying to get through Ritsu-senpai's cross examination in one piece. Tsumugi-senpai is a tough negotiator, you know that. That was close too, they almost found out."

"Why can't they find out?" Yui asked, not really seeing the problem in all of it.

"Because!" Azusa shouted instantly, "What would they think if they found out! Imagine what that would do to Tsumugi-senpai."

"You have a point with Mugi-chan." Yui admitted, "She would probably die of happiness for us. What about Mio-chan and Ricchan? What if they're like us to?"

"I don't think Mio-senpai and Ritsu-senpai are in love." Azusa said with a blank face.

"You never know." Yui shrugged, "But anyhoos, we should definitely tell them. We can't keep it a secret forever."

"Yes we can." Azusa said with a cross of her arms, "Why do you want them to know anyways, why does it matter?

"So I can do this whenever I want." Yui said with a sly grin, and grabbed Azusa in for a quick kiss on the lips. Azusa felt short of breath when Yui did that, as she always did. It always surprised Azusa when Yui took the dominant role like that, but then again she didn't really know whose job that was to begin with. It was like there was a book on romance that she had forgotten to read at some point.

"We'll tell them when the time is right." Azusa promised, "I don't know when that will be, but we'll do it together and everything will work out fine."

"I'm not worried about anything going wrong." Yui said with a confident smile.

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

Ui was going about her normal dinner making ritual when she noticed something a bit off about her sister's guitar playing. It's normal constant stream of notes was now a disjointed mess of half muted plucks and disharmonic chaos. Ui was also aware that Yui was playing the same six notes over and over again, and maybe getting two or three of them right. Normally she wouldn't attempt to butt into her sister's playing, but it was only a hair a way from making her ears bleed.

"Onee-chan, can you play that, er...better?" Ui asked her sister from the doorway to her room.

"Sorry Ui, I'm trying to learn how to _sweep pick_." Yui told her, then played those same six awful notes again. "Don't worry, the video I watched on the internet said that I should have this mastered in two weeks if I just keep playing this scale!"

"T-two weeks?" Ui groaned. She was going to say something else, but the doorbell rang.

"That must be Azu-nyan!" Yui said, and jumped up to go answer it.

"She's been coming here a lot lately..." Ui noted, but walked downstairs to go greet her. Yui was way ahead of her.

"Azu-nyan~!" Yui swooned and hugged Azusa's face while rocking her back and forth. Ui gave her a sympathetic look as Yui carried on, "...nyan...nyan...nyan...nyan...pan...pan..."

"I'm not bread." Azusa muttered, struggling for air.

"You know, what Onee-chan is doing reminds me of this recurring dream I keep having." Ui told them, then went back upstairs to continue working on dinner, talking to herself as she went up, "It always ends the same way, I faint from what I see and end up back in my bed. I've had this dream nearly ten times now."

"We need to be quieter." Azusa whispered to Yui. They could only convince Ui that she was dreaming so many times. The girl was bound snap and kill someone if that kept up. So they were forced to either be quieter in the midnight escapades, or finally tell her what was going on. The former seemed to be the smarter choice.

"That's not what Sawako said. She said that louder is better." Yui replied, matter-o-factly.

Azusa sighed and lightly slammed her head into the wall, "She was referring to music when she said that. Anyways, how's the guitar playing for our yet-to-be-disclosed song going?"

"It's going." Yui shrugged, and lead Azusa upstairs to where food and guitar was awaiting them. Azusa had her own guitar with her, so the two of them could practice together. Both of them believed that it would be phenomenally easier if they knew what song they were supposed to play though.

The three of them ate together, and conversation (and life in general) had resumed its normal flow. Yui and Azusa were open about their feelings to each other now, but kept it a secret from everyone. Azusa quickly learned that "discretion" was not in Yui's dictionary, so she had to work hard to keep her from telling others about them.

After eating, they sat together on the semi-circle green couch while mindlessly strumming away at their guitars. Yui sighed and laid her head down on Azusa's lap, "I feel a little bad for Ui. I know what it's like to get confused about whether or not something is a dream."

"Me too..." Azusa muttered, understanding fully.

"I had this dream where I walked in on Mio and Mugi-chan naked in the club room. It was so real too." Yui told her, Azusa didn't have a reply for that. Ui, who was sitting just across the table playing their PS2, was oblivious to their conversation.

"What's she playing?" Azusa asked, noticing it that it was some old Playstation game she had never seen.

Ui looked back and replied, "_Parasite Eve 2. _It's a game that makes you think, and _Elfen Lied _stole a lot of stuff from it. Vector Viruses, Mitochondria Eve, they could probably sue for rights."

"Is it any fun?" Azusa wondered, not really caring much for Ui's accusation of plagiarism.

"It is until you get into stupid fights like these!" Ui growled, on screen the blonde main character was stuck in the corner in some woods while getting attacked by several round spiky monsters at her feet. The "game over" screen appeared. "Stupid scientists, did they ever think, _Hey if these things get loose, humanity is, like, over. _Why the hell would you want to become part horse anyways! Not to mention, how do you even build an underground ark without anyone knowing in the first place, especially ones that have whole environment for creepy horse people!"

Yui walked over and took the pink controller out of her sister's hands, and hugged her, "It's okay Ui, the game can't make you mad anymore. Breath in and out, relax. Remember what happened when you lost your Squall card in _Final Fantasy VIII? _We can't afford another TV right now."

"Oh come on, you're making her seem worse than she really is." Azusa said with a condescending shake of her head, "We all get frustrated at games sometimes, you don't need to treat her like a mental patient."

"No, you don't understand." Yui said back to her, Ui was still shaking in her arms, "Ui-chan is sort of a perfectionist, she doesn't like to lose. I'll leave it at that."

**THE VERDICT**

"Step right up and take your scores." Sawako said to the tea drinking Light Music Club. In her hands were several stacks of paper stapled together, and a CD.

"I don't remember taking a test." Yui said with a horrified look etched across her face.

"Scores as in music." Sawako clarified. Yui still looked confused, "Music as in guitar tabs."

"_Ohhhh._" Yui exhaled, and gladly took the stack of stapled paper, "Wow this song is really long isn't it?"

"Not really. There's just a lot of notes." Sawako shrugged, and handed Mio's score to her, which was written in traditional solfege style notes; which Mio had no trouble reading. Same for Tsumugi and Ritsu, who could all read music. The rhythm score for Azusa was also in tabs, "The song isn't long, it just has a lot of changing guitar parts. It's a metal song to the very core, but it definitely has some progressive elements. Not too much progressive, because Laiho-san has expressed his disdain for _Dream Theater _before."

"Right." Mio muttered, and read over the bass. Her part required a pick, but looked moderately fun to play. Azusa, Ritsu, and Tsumugi harbored similar feelings towards their own pieces. Azusa viewed hers with more apathy, it was mostly tremolo picking and power chords. Mugi, being Mugi, thought it was the greatest things since teabags without staples. Because no one likes their microwave turning into a miniature fission reactor.

Yui picked Gitah up from next to her, and placed it on her lap in its traditional playing position. She read the first guitar part of the intro and played away at those lower frets, letting each note ring out, "How does that sound."

"It says those are 16th notes, Yui-senpai." Azusa pointed out and pointed at the little footnote, "Holy mother of chocobo's how are you supposed to play that?"

Yui's confidence faded instantly, those fast notes jumped across different strings, and her newly found sweep picking knowledge wouldn't apply here. She awkwardly tried to play the breakneck speed arpeggios, the notes came out sounding choked and generally audibly unappealing. "This is hard!" She whined.

"Just practice it for three weeks." Sawako shrugged, "Any questions?"

Five hands shot up. The sensei pointed at Mio, "You're question will probably be the most realistic, what is it?"

"Can we actually hear the song?" Mio finally asked.

"Oh, right, the song." Sawako replied, and held up the CD she had. "Put it in the stereo over there. It's the first song."

Mio obeyed, placed the disk in and pressed play. The song started with some guy saying something in English. Then it exploded into a power chord, followed by a heavy, quick bass solo. Then that blisteringly fast guitar part that Yui couldn't play. That broke into a frenzy of all the instruments playing beautiful chaos.

Azusa stood up, pushed her chair in, and laid down on the floor. The singing in the song began, insane, wretching growling that made her gag if she tried to even think about imitating it. "What language is this in, it's not Japanese, or English either."

"It's English." Sawako told her, "Pretty bad ass, huh?"

"This is English?" Mio said in disbelief. She had a good grade in English class, so she had a base understanding of what the language sounded like. "Tsumugi, can you understand this?"

"No, I think it's in Finnish." Tsumugi replied with a shake of her head.

"It's English." Sawako stated again.

"Then you should be able to understand it, you're Finnish, right?" Ritsu replied to Tsumugi. The keyboardist gave her an unamused look.

"I don't believe that was ever established." She growled, Ritsu flinched back in surprise.

"But...Blonde hair, the eyebrows-" Ritsu tried to say, Mio was cringing at her mincing of words.

"What about _the eyebrows?_" Mugi asked and stared Ritsu down.

"They look...Finnish?" Ritsu squeaked.

Yui was next to speak up, "If Mugi-chan is Finnish, then she should do the vocals for this song."

"I never said I was Finnish!" Mugi cried in frustration.

"Well, are you?" Mio calmly asked.

"Maybe..." Tsumugi grumbled under her voice, "I feel like this is something that you should have all picked up by now."

"Anyways!" Sawako shouted, interrupting all of them, "Mio, and Yui. It's time for your training. Mio will learn how to distort her voice like that, and Yui will learn to not suck at guitar."

"I don't suck!" Yui cried.

"I don't want to sing like that!" Mio yelped in unison with the guitarist.

"Am I the only adult here!" Sawako cried out, "Jeeze Mio, at least give it a chance."

"I couldn't get my voice to do that." Mio protested.

"It's not that hard, I can teach you how. It's not that hard once you release the inner rage and hate that brews in your heart." The teacher tried to tell her. Mio wouldn't have any of it.

"I don't have any inner rage or hate."

"Liar." Ritsu scoffed, "You've hit me enough times for me to know for a fact that you are indeed a very hateful person."

"I am not!" Mio cried.

Sawako nodded her head in approval, "Alright then, I shall teach you how to properly harness that inner hate into a musical weapon to slay the crowd. Okay, now that you have the tabs, Yui you need to get to work on practicing. I think playing the same thing for about six hours a day should be enough-"  
"What if I want to do other stuff, like eat and have fun?" Yui interrupted.

"You can eat and enjoy life when you master the song." Sawako answered, she then turned to the rest, "Okay, Azusa, I'm not too worried about you. Ritsu, I have a double bass pedal that you can use for this. Nothing you're incapable of doing. And Tsumugi, I don't even have to tell you anything, you've got this down."

**MIO LEARNS TO HATE**

Through a series of various excuses, lies, and narrowly avoided encounters, Mio managed to put off her hateful vocal lessons for a week and half. Eventually, she was cornered and forced to start by Sawako. Ritsu, Azusa, and Yui sat at their couch each halfheartedly attempting their parts. Azusa had her head on Yui's lap while she mindlessly tremolo picked at muted notes. Yui was halfway laying on Azusa as well, absentmindedly raking various chords below the 12th fret. Ritsu, who had noticed that those two had become a lot more friendly with each other lately, was tapping both her feet on the floor like pedals.

"Now sing me a scale." Sawako politely asked Mio.

Mio glanced around nervously, but obeyed, "_Do re me_-"

"Wrong." Sawako instantly interjected. Azusa looked at her in surprise, she thought that her senapai's voice had been beautiful. "Look, you have to compress your diaphragm a lot more. Project more, and stop singing clean."

"I don't want to growl though, it hurts my throat." Mio pouted.

"Don't worry, I have a solution for that." Sawako happily told her, then handed her a sports bottle full of some liquid, "Drink this, it'll make your growls and hisses come out better and not hurt."

"O-oh, okay." Mio muttered, and reluctantly took a swig of the mystery drink. The other three band members sat up instantly when Mio started coughing and choking, "This tastes awful, what's in this!"

"Lemonade mixed with tap water and Gatorade." Sawako shrugged, "It's not _that _bad, I mean I wouldn't drink it, but still. Anyways, I think I know why you aren't able to get the growls going."

"Because I don't want to." Mio pouted again.

"No, it's because you're not mad enough. Right now you're feeling something along the lines of melancholy and boredom." Sawako told her, she then waved Ritsu over. The drummer stood up and stood next to her.

"What's up?"

Sawako whispered something into Ritsu's ear, and the drummer smiled, "Oh, I'd be glad to help."

"What are you doing?" A now terrified Mio asked.

"A visual exercise." Sawako told her, "Now close your eyes and do as I say."

"This isn't going to end bad is it?" Mio asked, but still closed her eyes.

"Not if you just follow my directions." The teacher told her, "Okay, just close your eyes and imagine you're on stage. All your friends and band mates are next to you, ready to perform. You're going to play _Fuwa Fuwa Time _for the new students, it's all very exciting. All their young, eager faces are looking up at you in anticipation. You're a hero to them Mio."

Mio smiled at the visual, but not understanding how this was supposed to help. Sawako nodded once at Ritsu, who stepped behind Mio. With a quick motion, she pulled Mio's skirt down to her feet.

"And now you're just in your panties." Sawako said. Mio screamed and went to cover herself. Sawako and Ritsu grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out the door. Quickly, they managed to run back in and lock it while Mio was still out there.

"Why did you just do that?" Azusa asked, and noticed that Mio had left her skirt in the club room. She also noticed that Mio was banging on the door and yelling something.

Sawako turned and shrugged, "She won't be able to sing unless she's really angry. This seemed to be the best way to set her off."

"It seems really mean though." Azusa protested, "Isn't that right Yui-senpai?"

"Wasn't the Judo Club supposed to be coming up to this floor for a meeting, like right now?" Yui mused aloud. The pounding on the door was even more frantic, it seemed that Mio had just realized this too.

"Time to let her in?" Ritsu asked, and placed a hand on the doorknob.

"Yes, now that she's properly angry." Sawako nodded. Ritsu unlocked the door an opened it. Mio, in all her half naked glory, charged in straight at Ritsu.

"_How dare you do something like that! I swear to go I'll kill you little-_" Her scream ended as she prepared to strangle the drummer. Sawako pulled the two away from each other by their uniform collars.

"Mio, you just screamed." Sawako told her.

"So?" Mio growled.

"Mio, you just growled."

"I...didn't...so what!" Mio defensively shouted.

Sawako and Ritsu smiled. Mio's training could begin.

**BACK AT YUI'S PLACE. AGAIN.**

"Oh, hey you're here...again." Ui said when she saw Azusa with Yui on their green couch. Yui had one arm over Azusa and the younger guitarist wasn't protesting in anyway. Ui thought that was a bit strange, but not as bad as those dreams she had several times.

"Hello, Ui-chan, I hope I'm not intruding." Azusa replied.

"You're always welcome here." Ui told her with a bow, "Should a make dinner for three?"

"Oh no, I already ate. Thanks though." Azusa replied. She sighed, then looked at Yui. "Remind me why we have to cover such a hard song?"

Yui tried to think and remember why, "I think it was because of that deal with Sawa-chan. But we work on that song so much that we never get to play our normal stuff."

"I tried writing lyrics, too bad we won't be able to use them." Azusa glumly said.

"You wrote lyrics!" Yui gasped, stars twinkling in her eyes, "What were they about?"

Azusa's eyes darted back and forth to make sure that Ui was safely out of sight; then quickly kissed Yui on the lips. "That."

Taking her chances, Yui kissed Azusa back, but took her time just a bit more. When they reluctantly broke away, she asked, "May I read them?"

"If you promise not to make fun of them." Azusa whispered, and retrieved a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. Yui happily took it, unfolded it, and read to herself...

_When every kiss is a secret and you're a ghost,_

_It's so hard to remind you how much I love you._

_I'll keep trying though, and we'll keep fighting._

_A secret to others, but not to my heart. _

_I'll be in your arms forever. _

"They're so cute!" Yui swooned and hugged Azusa tightly, rocking her back and forth, "I love you, I love you, I love you!"

"Glad you like them." Azusa quietly replied, struggling for air. When Ui walked in, and gave the two a curious glance; Yui quickly jumped up with that piece of paper in hand.

"Ui, look at these lyrics that Azu-nyan wrote!" Yui said, and practically shoved the paper in to Ui's hands. Azusa's face went pale and she started mouthing, _Please don't put the obvious puzzle together! _Over and over again.

Ui read them over with a calm smile on her face; their deeper depth was lost on her. "I think these are lovely. I'm sure that it would make a great song."

"You think so?" Yui asked, seeming to take the credit for Azusa's hard work. Azusa just sighed in relief that Ui had overlooked the less-than-subtle meaning behind those words. What they did with those lyrics afterwords was up to them. Ui went back to whatever it was that she had been doing, and Azusa and Yui were alone again.

Although she knew that this was not the kind of place to bring up a conversation like the one she had in her mind, Azusa went ahead and voiced her mind, "Yui-senpai, did you understand what I was trying to say?"

"That you were glad that I liked them?" Yui replied.

Azusa shook her head, "No, before that, how they were about you. I was thinking about what you said the other day about letting others know. Maybe we should tell them, I don't like having to tip-toe around with my feelings. The question is, how would we tell people something like this?"

"Hmm..." Yui said, thinking, "Maybe like this..." She stood up and faced the kitchen.

"Yui-senpai, what are you doing?" Azusa asked worriedly.

"Azu-nyan and I are in love!" Yui cried out to Ui. Her sister didn't look up for the pasta strainer she was working with.

"That's nice Onee-chan." Ui shrugged and continued her dinner preperations.

"Well, that went better than I hoped." Yui said, and sat back down next to Azusa. The younger guitarist was purely relieved that Ui didn't have paranoid mind like her own. That made things so much easier. Still, her heart was still pounding from Yui shouting that.

"Should we use the same approach for everyone else?" She asked Yui.

"Possibly..." Yui answered, and stroked her chin while thinking, "Although Mugi-chan seems like the type who would actually understand what we were trying to say. And I don't really think that admitting things jokingly is a good idea either."

"You have a point." Azusa agreed, a little surprised by her senpai's wisdom in all of this. "I say we don't count Ui as knowing for now. We should wait for a good time to each of them one by one. If we told them all at once, there's the possibility of a riot starting. Do not underestimate mob-mentality, even amongst friends."

"What about after our concert?" Yui suggested, "Everyone will be so happy from playing that our news could only be viewed as good."

"Not a bad idea at all." Azusa said with a nod of her head, "Speaking of which, the shows only a week away, do you think you're ready?"

"Maybe, what about you?" Yui asked in return.

"I've had my part mastered for a long time now. Ritsu-senpai is still polishing her part, Mio-senpai has it mastered, and Tsumugi-senpai... she had it figured out ten minutes after Sawako-san gave it to her." Azusa replied.

**NEWS GOOD AND BAD**

**Four days before the Battle of the Bands. Three days later.**

The last chord of _No, Thank You _rang across that level of the school as HTT finished their practice session. They were worried that someone would complain about the noise, but it seemed to be okay. Almost as soon as they finished, Nodoka Manabe stepped in with a flier in her hand.

"Ah, Mio-san. I'm glad see that you're taking an interest in your fan-club, this is the kind of thing that can rouse up interest in clubs." Nodoka said to her, clearly under the impression that Mio knew what she was talking about.

"_What_?" Mio said in English, which Ritsu promptly questioned.

"I'm talking about this." Nodoka replied, and handed Mio a flier that had been printed out and placed around school.

**A ONCE IN A LIFE TIME EVENT!**

**The Light Music Club will be playing in a Battle of the Bands event at the address listed at the bottom of the page. They will be performing a special new song for this event, which will never be played again. Bringing your "Mio Fanclub" membership card will grant you free access into the show. Hope to see you there.**

"People from...here...are going to watch us...play that song..." Mio stuttered in horrified disbelief. All those freshmen that were in her fanclub were going to watch her tear apart her vocal cords while playing bass with _a pick_.

"This is great!" Ritsu cheered, "Think about it, we'll definitely win the record deal since we'll have people only there to see up play in the audience."

"You're welcome." Sawako said from the table across the room.

"Announce your intrusions from now on!" Ritsu yelped in surprise, "...Wait, you're the one who made these fliers."

"I had some help from Tsumugi-san." Sawako modestly replied.

"I drew the picture on the back!" Tsumugi happily told them.

"But it's taped on the wall, you can only see the front." Ritsu pointed out. Out of curiosity, she took the flier from Mio, then turned it over. On the back was a stick-figure rendition of the Light Music Club, which was crudely done to say the least.

"That reminds me..." Sawako said rather loudly to get their attention. There was a worried look on all of their faces as she began to speak, "I may have left out one teensy tiny detail about this record deal..."

"Why do I know that I'm not going to like this?" Azusa asked with a skeptical look on her face, "This is either going to do have something to do with us having to contradict Light Music, or sell our souls or something."

"Hey, it worked for _Black Sabbath_." Ritsu shrugged.

"What's with this sudden distrust?" Sawako said with mock hurt, "Anyways, I should have probably told you that the record company sponsoring this is one _Omnicidal Records, _and they mainly sign on bands of the heavier style of playing."

"So in other words we have no hope of winning?" Azusa interjected. There was general murmur of unhappiness over this news.

Sawako defensively waved her arms and quickly tried to win them back, "Look, you five have a really good shot at winning this. Your line up is really strong, and that last song will guarantee that you win this.And with your fanclub, Mio, you guys can get that deal easily. Even if the company wants a metal band, there's nothing saying you can produce the stuff you want to play. God knows that your style of music has the biggest following in Japan, and most of the world. Just behind alt-rock and rap."

"Why is it called alternative anyways?" Ritsu asked, "If it's so mainstream, wouldn't genres like death metal, techno, and funk be the alternative?"

"Who cares about that, Sawako-sensei just sold us out!" Mio snapped at her.

The band discussed it amongst themselves for a few minutes, deciding whether or not Sawako was worth listening to.

"We've practiced too hard to let something like that stop us." Azusa adamantly said, after their flurry of interrupting each other to voice various opinions was over.

"You're right." Mio agreed, "So this may not be what we had in mind for how HTT was going to end up. But we can't let that stop us. This could get us the boost we need to get to Budokan."

"And why limit ourselves to one genre? Heck, after this let's do a prog song, or an indie or funk song!" Ritsu added in.

"I finally got the sweep picking down!" Yui blurted out over all of them. Sure enough, with one fluid motion, she was able to rake her pick over four strings and play a quick little arpeggio at the end before raking back up. The rest of the band cheered as she continued playing without any sudden halts or having to think about where her fingers were.

"Yui...what time signature are you playing?" Sawako stood up and asked, a look of utter concentration was etched on her face.

Yui shrugged, "I dunno, why?" She played the notes again, with the rest of the band listening carefully.

"It's hard to tell..." Azusa muttered.

"...It's not a conventional one..." Mio added.

"...Sounds like..." Tsumugi said under her breath.

"7/9th time signature." Sawako finished, "You're playing in 7/9th Yui, there's only one other musician I've seen do that so effortlessly."

"Who was that?" Ritsu asked.

"Danny Carrey, from _Tool_." Sawako replied, "I was worried about how you five would do in playing this. But I now know that my worries were misplaced. Yui, I don't know how you managed to come up with a scale in that time signature so easily, but I know HTT is ready to do this."

"You think so?" Tsumugi beamed.

Sawako nodded, "Give them hell, Marines."

**DAY OF RECKONING**

"...and this is where you'll wait before you go on." The man in charge of managing the bands at the show said, as he lead the five girls to a spacey room full of chairs and couches around all the walls. There was a refrigerator stocked with various drinks, and two other bands were already there; sitting and talking amongst each other. Band posters covered every last part of the walls, the bands encompassed all genres and eras.

"Wow, it's a real backstage hang out area!" Yui gasped.

"Yeah." Yuichi, the man who was directing them, replied, "Only two bands have showed up. There's six in total, you're second up. Four of them are from around here, but the two here are from out of the country. Don't worry, they speak Japanese."

"Hi everyone!" Yui cried out and waved towards the two bands.

A guy medium length brown hair with a black custom Les Paul in his hands nudged towards the other guitarist in his band, "Dude, look. _Chicks_."

"Oh my god." The other guitarist, a taller guy with long dark hair that went over his shoulders gasped. He was wearing glasses and a light beard going, his guitar as a cheap red and white fender, "There are all female bands in existence. This means the third horsemen of the apocalypse has arrived."

"Ignore them." Yuichi said with a shake of his head, "I gotta go help another band unload their things. Just stay here and try not to pick a fight with anyone."

"You say that like you actually think we would." Mio casually remarked.

Yuichi chuckled, "That other band over there, _Tasteful Abortion_, has a god complex. Don't make any attempts to communicate with them. The guys you just met, _Spires of Hate_ are an odd group, but you shouldn't have any problems with them." With that, he left them alone to mingle amongst one another.

The bassist for _Spires of Hate _stood up and went to say hello to the girls, "Nice to meet you, I hope you five do well in the show."

"Thank you." Azusa said with a bow, "We're _Afterschool Tea Time. _We look forward to playing with you."

"Azusa-chan, that's no way to introduce a band of our caliber!" Ritsu shouted out. Azusa and Mio both cringed at that. She stepped forward with her head held high, "That's right, we're _Afterschool Tea Time _and we're going to win this. On drums there's me, Tainaka Ritsu, then on lead guitar and vocals there's Hirasawa Yui, on rhythm guitar is Nakano Azusa, on bass and vocals is Akiyama Mio, and on keyboard is Kotobuki Tsumugi."

"Nice to meet you all." The bassist said with a wave, he had the longest hair on any man they had ever seen, and also sported glasses and a pony tail like the guitarist, "I'm the bassist, David Whittington, over there is the lead guitarist and singer Joe House, the rhythm guitarist and singer Graydon Wilder. And the one who's sitting there doing nothing with a blank look on his face is his brother, the drummer Elric Wilder."

"Who are they?" Ritsu asked, and pointed at the other band. The members of that band were all guys who were wearing dirty clothes, half of them were asleep.

"Oh," David replied and thought for a moment, "That's _Tasteful Abortion_, they're pretty good but they're complete douche bags."

They watched one of _Tasteful Abortion's _members, the drummer, start instigating with the rhythm guitarist of _Spires of Hate_, "Hey, play _Smoke on the Water_!"

"Fuck you, I'm playing _Sweating Bullets_." He curtly replied, and kept on his practicing. He looked up and noticed that his bandmate, David, and _Afterschool Tea Time _were all looking in his direction. He nudged the other guitarist, "Hey, uh, why are they all staring at us."

"I think they want you." He replied in turn.

"Huh, that's pretty cool." The guitarist muttered to himself, "But I don't think this is the place to pick up chicks, let's do that later."

"Right. But what if they're heavy? Heavy chicks are hard to pick up."

"You're right, I didn't come here to do any heavy lifting. I came here to play my fucking guitar and snarl like Dave Mustaine."

Ritsu placed and arm over at Mio and pointed at them, "Look there Mio-chan. You are looking at the two men who are the number one candidates in this room to die alone."

"Ritsu, that's not a polite thing to say." Mio grumbled at her. Yuichi returned and woke up the few sleeping members of _Tasteful Abortion_

"Hey, you guys are first up. Get your shit set up." He barked at them. The men of that band grumbled curses beneath their breath and begrudgingly lugged their instruments through the door that would take them on to the stage.

"Think about it Mio, all our fans are out there." Ritsu dreamily said. They had played live shows plenty of times, but this was the first one with competition. Mio was shaking and was awfully pale.

"Mio-senpai, are you going to be alright?" Azusa asked. She was half keeping an eye on Yui, and Tsumugi who had gone to mingle with _Spires of Hate._ Mio nervously nodded, but was unsure of herself.

On the other side of the backstage lounge, Yui and Tsumugi were being sociable. Yui stared down the red and white fender which was covered with scratches, smears, and had dirt caking the high E string, "You're not the kind of guitar I would let Gitah be friends with."

"Huh?" The guitarist, Graydon Wilder, looked up, "Are you saying that your _Gitah _is too good for my _Mary_?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Yui said with a defensive wave of her arms, "_Mary _looks kind of rough though, have you been taking care of her?"

"Go through six airports with your guitar on your back, then have it in ride in the baggage compartment; then see if it still looks good." He replied in a monotone voice.

Tsumugi was off trying to make conversation with the guitarists brother, "So...how long have you been playing drums?"

He just shrugged.

"Who's your favorite drummer?"

"Shannon Lucas" He replied without looking at her. Tsumugi had no idea who that was.

"Are you looking forward to playing today?"

"No."

"Do you have a favorite kind of tea?"

"No."  
"What about cake?"

"No."

"Hm, do you have any pets?"

"No."

Tsumugi didn't think she had ever met a more boring, uninteresting person in her life. Anything she asked was rewarded with either a shrug or a one word sentence. It looked like talking to Yui about what cakes went good with what teas sounded like a good idea now.

In the background, they could hear the vibrations and faded sounds of the other band beginning their line up.

"We're up after them, is everyone ready?" Mio called out to the rest of her band mates. None of them replied in anyway. But Azusa noticed that Mio was still pale, and now had sweat running down her forehead.

"Mio-senpai, you're playing in front of people who came just to see you. Don't worry, they'll love the show even if you do miss a few notes." Azusa assured her.

"I'm afraid of the last song." Mio admitted.

"We all know our parts perfectly, we rehearsed it, it's passable." Azusa told her. That was the world she associated with it, _passable_.

"I'm worried though."

"Don't, we can win over the metal fans with our song." Azusa tried to convince her.

Meanwhile, Yui was still making conversation, "Yeah, we've played live stuff before too."

"I know, I've heard your stuff." The guitarist replied to her.

"You have?" Yui gasped.

"Yeah, like that one song where...okay, no I actually haven't heard of anything you've made." He admitted, "But from what you've told me, you shouldn't have trouble winning over this crowd. I hope."

"What about you guys, what songs are you playing?" Yui asked him.

"Well we're starting off with a cover of _Sweating Bullets_, then our other songs- _Mass Impalement, Dick Like A Flamethrower, _then finally _Orphanage Buffet_."

"Those all sound quite horrible." Yui replied matter-o-factly.

"I know, isn't it brutal?"

None of them realized how quickly time had gone by. The members of _Tasteful Abortion _marched back in, drenched with sweat, and carrying their instruments. Everyone could hear the fans screaming for more, the band had done a good job apparently. The drummer threw his drum sticks down and threw his fists in the air, "_FUCK YEAH! _That record deal is ours, you all can just go home."

"We're not here just for the deal, we're here to have fun and give our fans a good show." Azusa scolded him with her hands at her hips.

"That's the kind of mentality that will keep your band from ever being famous. You should retire back to making sandwiches." He laughed. Azusa just shook her head, that man was not a real musician.

"Why would I be making sandwiches anyways?" Azusa grumbled.

Yuichi reappeared, "_Afterschool Tea Time_, five minutes!"

"This is it." Mio gulped.

"Looks like it." Ritsu said, and twirled her drumsticks.

"Everyone ready?" Azusa asked.

"_Pen, Lazy, Bitter, Fuwa Fuwa_." Yui listed their line up.

"And _Warheart_." Mio reluctantly added, "Well let's make it a concert of a lifetime for these people."

"Wait, Mio-chan!" Tsumugi shouted as Mio was turning away to pick up her bass. "Take this!"

"Hm?" Mio exhaled as Tsumugi handed her a cold water bottle.

"You'll throw out your voice if you don't drink it all before _Warheart_." Tsumugi warned her, "Yui-chan, MC for a few seconds before that song so Mio-chan can drink it all."

"Right." Yui nodded. They gathered their instruments and stepped through that door.

Lights momentarily blinded them as they walked on stage, the fans who had shown up for them screamed from the audience. Looking past the blinding lights, Azusa could see all the girls from their school on one side of the floor, while a bunch of black wearing metal fans took up the other half. They did not share the same enthusiasm as their fans.

They each took their spots on stage, and began a quick mic check.

"Hi everyone!" Yui shouted into the microphone, "Uh, I want to say hi to everyone from our school, from the Mio Fanclub, and everyone else who's here. We're _Afterschool Tea Time _and we're going to play for you now... and stuff. Oh yeah, we have a new song at the end that we'd like you all to hear."

The Mio Fanclub's cheers out did everyone else's. The prospect of a new song only to be sung once had brought them, and all the friends they could fit into their cars, out there. They would not be disappointed.

**MOMENT OF TRUTH**

Four songs in, it had gone faster than they had predicted. Half the crowd was screaming and trying to claw their way on stage. The other half just stood there with blank looks on their faces, none of them had the nerve to boo or do anything like that. So Azusa was mildly grateful that they were at least polite with their disdain. Still, she remembered that _The Black Dahlia Murder _concert that she had accidentally gone to. Fans were jumping on stage and all around having fun like that. Their fans from school were certainly enthusiastic, but the other half was not. It was kind of disappointing to not see any mayhem.

"Here's our last song." Yui said into the microphone, "We practiced this one a lot, I mean a lot a lot. So I hope that you all like it and don't judge us too much if we do bad."

**Author Note bit here. For this next part you have to have a good imagination, but if you don't I recommend looking up the song "Warheart" by Children of Bodom on Youtube or something while reading this so you have a base idea of what they're playing. That is the song by the way, Warheart.**

"So without further ado, I have something to say to everyone..." Yui finished, then took a quick look at her band mates. They all nodded in unison, signifying that they were ready. Yui looked at all the fans of those other metal bands that were playing, then in English she said to them in a deep, clear voice, "_**From now on, we are enemies. You and I."**_

__With that, a chord exploded from Azusa's guitar and Mio began the opening bass solo. The Mio fans screamed, over 135 decibels, at the heavy metallic sound of her bass. Then Yui began her opening guitar solo, tearing away with quick arpeggios so fast that the individual notes were hard to distinguish.

There was tiny pause as the intro finished and the first verse began. Envisioning all the hate in her life, and harnessing into a weapon of music. Mio began the first verse.

"_**I an owecast ahn on the pahth ov reboownnee!**_"

The members of the Mio fanclub stood in shocked amazing. Then one of the screamed out, "Mio-sama knows Finnish! That's bad ass!" Then they were on their side in an instant. It was bit surprising to see there beloved Mio start screaming in Finnish, but it wasn't unwelcome. Without missing a beat, Mio finished the verse.

"_**Errerything is frale, I dissolate, crash, and burrrnnnn! Rawr!**_

_**I 'ave chosen darrkness to be my guiiiiiiiide!**_

_**Werarr is in my hart, deeyeth is by my siiiiiiiide! Wow!"**_

_Wow, she actually came through. _Azusa thought in disbelief as she kept strumming away, palm always at the base of the strings. Briefly looking around, she couldn't help but wonder how people saw their band. Yui was bouncing up and down upbeat rhythm of her guitar part, Mio was just standing there, Ritsu was normal Ritsu, Azusa herself was also just standing there normally, and Tsumugi...while Tsumugi was violently headbanging over her keyboard.

"**Warrheart!" **Yui and Mio screamed the word in unison before Mio took over again, "_**With no remines ov compassion or lowve"**_

"_**Warrheart! Hate your fellow assellass yourselve!"**_

Although she would never admit, Mio actually forgot the words to the second and third verse. Suddenly everything they had practiced for seemed to be moot, all because she only practiced singing the song twice before hand. Then a thought hit her, _No one has any idea what I'm singing anyways, I could just adlib the parts I don't know... _Which is exactly what she did, and she had to do it quick because Yui couldn't keep raking that scale over and over while she waited for Mio to start the next verse.

By simple growling nonsense and various words of various languages she knew, Mio managed to get back to the part where they screamed "Warheart" again, she knew that part pretty well. It was by divine luck that no one called her bluff, but Azusa was wondering if that song really was in English. From her mildly trained ear, it sounded like Finnish to her. That was exactly what her fanclub thought too, that Mio spoke fluent Finnish.

"Wow, Yui-senpai really did practice that solo." Azusa said to herself as Yui tore through every note that laid in her path. She also noticed that the crowd morale had really picked up, now fists were up and heads were banging.

"_**I an owecast ahn on the pahth ov reboownnee!**_

"_**Errerything is frale, I dissolate, crash, and burrrnnnn! Rawr!**_

_**I 'ave chosen darrkness to be my guiiiiiiiide!**_

_**Werarr is in my hart, deeyeth is by my siiiiiiiide!"**_

Yui and Azusa accompanied the last word to give it an added umph.

Azusa stepped up next to Yui where the mic was when the solo was finishing, just to add a little something to the last chorus.

"_**Warheart!**_" The three of them sang in unison, which came out much better than Azusa had hoped.

"_**With no remines ov comppassion or lowve!"**_

"_**Warrheart! Hate your fellow assellass yourselve!"**_

One outro verse, then it was over. Mio adlibbed it again, since the English lyrics had completely escaped her mind. No one noticed, which worked very well in their favor. The song didn't have any real epic ending, no build up, no solo, it just ended. Then they were left standing there, soaked in sweat, hands slightly shaking, Mio shaking a lot, with a couple hundred fans screaming for more.

"Do we tell them?" Azusa called out to Yui, who could barely hear her even though they were standing right next to each other.

"Tell them what?" Yui called back.

"That we're in love!" Azusa replied over all the noise.

Yui nodded her head, "Okay, let's do that right now."

Azusa blushed nervously, but accepted this as a good way to finally admit it, "I'm counting on you!"

Yui nodded again, and took the microphone, "Uh...hello again, everyone!"

The crowd screamed and their new fans were screaming in unison, "Sa-ku-ra War-hearts!" Over and over again.

"Thanks for letting us play for you, and all that." Yui said into the mic, trying to figure out how she was going to word this. Ritsu and Mio were eying her suspiciously, the random burst of MC'ing was not planned, "I wanted to say that we don't actually want you to hate your fellow, or yourself. Those were just the lyrics, don't actually do that please." Azusa softly kicked her in the back of her leg, "Right, um, this is an open letter to everyone here and in _Afterschool Tea Time_..."

The other three band member's interest was piqued instantly. Yui continued, "Uh, as you may have noticed, Azu-nyan and I have been a bit more friendly towards each other after our adventure."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Mio asked though her own mic.

"Yeah, anyways um... I don't know how to put this lightly so, I'm just going to go out and say it. Azu-nyan and I are in love." They hadn't been sure what to expect when they finally admitted it, but the complete silence that washed over the concert hall was a little disheartening. Azusa looked at her band mates, Ritsu was just blinking with her forehead shining against the overhead lights, Tsumugi was smiling and looked so happy she could explode. Mio was pale, shaky, and looked like she was going to faint.

Mio, with some trouble, grasped her microphone, "I...uh... I suppose that's nice, maybe, I'm not sure. But did you _have _to tell that to all the girls from school who showed up? Keeping that a secret for later would probably have been a better idea. I'm not sure if everyone knowing that our two guitarists are in love is a good thing."

"That was our original plan." Yui said back to her, the crowd was standing there amazed by this completely random exchange of dialogue between the band. "But we, I mean _I_, thought it would be better if everyone knew."

There was a tense silence between the band and the audience. That silence was finally broken when someone from the crowd screamed quite loudly, "Who cares who's in love with who! Play another song!"

**A BRIEF LITTLE CONCLUSION**

Yui ran through the door with Azusa in hand, and quickly shouted to her sister, "Quick, Ui, turn the TV onto the news channel!"

"Um, alright Onee-chan." Ui replied and turned on the TV, there was a local news special going. Ui all of a sudden knew why Yui had her turn on the news.

On the TV was a well dressed news reporter woman standing in front of the crumpled, burnt remains of a building, with fire fighters still putting some of the fire out. People were completely crowded around the police tape line. "...It started off as a Battle of the Bands show where six bands competed to win a record label deal. However, the second band's music caused the crowd to become out of control and quite literally tear the establishment down, and burn it."

"Oh no!" Ui gasped, "Did your band get to play before that happened?"

"Just watch..." Azusa sighed in monotone.

The reported continued, "The band that caused such a powerful fan reaction was _Afterschool Tea Time, _A high school indie band that played a variety of genres in their show. When they covered a song by the Finnish metal group, _Children of Bodom_, the crowd became so wild that chaos ensued. We were able to get a few words in from the witnesses."

The woman walked over to a high school kid wearing black jeans and a _Black Sabbath _shirt. She asked him why he thought the crowd rioted like that, and he replied with, "Well ma'am, it was simple. This random no-name band comes out and starts playing like pop-rock, their fans eat it up but me and my mates are bored to **BEEP**ing tears. Then the girls just start playing this kick ass song, out of nowhere to get us on their side. It worked, the show was so awesome that I just...I just had to break something! These girls really have a future if they were able to destroy their first venue; you usually have to have a record out before you can do that."

"Onee-chan, you didn't have anything to do with this did you?" Ui worriedly asked.

Azusa placed a hand on Ui's shoulder, "Don't worry, this was not our fault. There is a lesson in this though. Metal fans should stay in their parents basements where they belong."

"We also managed to get opinions from another local indie metal group..." The reporter went on.

"We're not a metal group though." Yui pouted.

The camera switched from the wreckage scene to a dark room where a man wearing fake armor with a kobuki makeup was standing, the subtitles read, _Krauser-san, Emperor of Hell, indie death metal singer/guitarist_. In a deep growling voice, he voiced his opinions about the events of that concert, "Impressive, I look forward to seeing those five continue their crusade of destruction with their music. That is if I don't rape and kill them first."

"We're never going to be able to live this down..." Azusa muttered, "Oh yeah, Ui-chan, we don't get the deal either since they blamed us for what happened."

"That's horrible!" Ui remarked, "And now they're giving you this bad image too!"

"You know what?" Azusa rhetorically asked, "I was kind of expecting something along these lines from the start."

"You expected that your music would rile fans into arson?"

"No...I was expecting something to come up and prevent us from getting a deal though."

The reporter continued her story, "In a rare turn of events, we were able to get a few words with _Children of Bodom _frontman and guitarist, Alexi Laiho, from our Finnish news correspondent."

The camera switched a shot of a man with long blonde hair, who looked rather intoxicated. When asked about five girls destroying a venue by covering his song, he replied with one inspirational word, "_Brutal_."

The story ended and then the news station went onto reporting various assorted nonsense. Yui and Azusa collapsed on that green couched and sighed in unison. It had been a long, strange, and sort of rewarding day. They had finally gotten that secret off their chest, in a way that Azusa didn't quite agree with. But everyone seemed okay with it, or generally too surprised to react. None of their band mates said anything about it, but Tsumugi couldn't stop smiling. All in all, that wasn't a bad reaction from them. Now all there was left was Ui, Azusa decided she would take this one...

After a bit of basic chatter amongst them, Azusa told Yui to wait there, and she took Ui upstairs into her room where they could be alone for a moment.

"Is something wrong Azusa-chan?" Ui asked, this was merely another step in the long road that was the strange behavior of Azusa and her sister.

"No, nothing's wrong. I have a question though, do you ever wonder what it would be like if you found someone who was perfect for you?" Azusa hypothetically asked.

Ui eyes lit up, and she swooned, "Like in a love story?"

"Exactly like that." Azusa said with a nod, "Like if you found your soul mate. Someone who goes out of their way to take care of you without ever asking anything in return. Someone who always amazes you those little things they do to show their love..."

Ui let out a dreamy, girly sigh, "That sounds wonderful Azusa-chan, but why are you talking about this? And in here no less? Why did you want to talk to me privately?"

Azusa put up a hand to silence her constant stream of questions, "Ui-chan, I think I found that person for me."

Ui nearly squealed from excitement and happiness for Azusa, "You did! I'm so happy for you! How long have you known him? Do I know him? Does Onee-chan know? Oh, does he own a car!"

"I'll answer those questions in the same order you asked them." Azusa replied, "Since high school started, you know them, Yui-senpai knows them, and they do not own a car."

"Oh, who is it then? Tell me tell me tell me tell me-" Azusa had to put her hand over Ui's mouth to stem her excitement.

"It was someone who took care of me when I was sick, even when I was rude to them. Someone who literally risked their life to make sure I was safe from harm." Azusa told her, still not saying the name.

"They sounds like a knight in shining armor, how wonderful." Ui swooned.

Azusa took in a deep breath and replied, "It's Yui-senpai."

"I don't know any boys named Yui." Ui said with a blank look on her face.

"Your sister." Azusa clarified. A spark of light flashed in Ui's eyes as she recalled that recurring dream she had eight times where Azusa and her Onee-chan were kissing...naked...saying lovey dovey things to each other...

Downstairs, Yui looked up as she saw Azusa step into the room. Barely able to contain her anticipation, "How did Ui take it!"

"She fainted on her bed." Azusa shrugged, "Sorry Yui-senpai, but it looks like Ui won't be aware of this until she gets a wedding invitation in the mail."

"You're asking me to marry you!" Yui gasped.

"That wasn't my intention-"

"Let's call up Mugi-chan, she can get us to Finland." Yui said and pulled out her cellphone.

"Why Finland?" Azusa asked, but then shifted her focus to the real problem at hand, "Hey! Don't call Tsumugi-senpai."

"You're right, I'll call Mio-chan first." Yui said with a nod.

"Why her!"

"Tsumugi may speak good English, but we'll need Mio-chan's Finnish to get us through this." Yui explained, "The two of them can get us through any language barriers we come across. Because the only English I know is- _**Beyond these cursed stars lies the answer that I seek. On the back of bullets rides my name, longing to kiss my cheek. Without guilt I break these veins, carved with salvation's knife**_."

"But you got an 80% on that English test just last week, how is suicidal poem the only English you know?" Azusa had to ask.

Yui shrugged, "I tend to forget things quickly, but learn them even quicker."

"Right..." Azusa muttered, "Just...don't call people. We're not getting married any time soon, and we're not going to Finland any sooner."

"I think this is because you're racist against the Danes." Yui decided.

Azusa just blinked, too bewildered to speak, "There were so many things wrong with that sentence. I don't even know where to begin."

**IN CONCLUSION**

Life went on normally, except with Yui and Azusa lovin' each other without having to worry about anything. The rest of the band was generally supportive, but didn't really like them getting intimate around them. Ui still never found out, because there was no way for her learn without fainting. Yui and Azusa never went to Finland. Yui never learned that Danish people were from Denmark, not Finland. And all was well in the world.

**THE END**

Three cheers for a conclusion that was neither strong, nor concluded anything! Kind of like the ending for _Detroit Metal City_ which I drew obvious influence from.

Anyways, there's nothing significant about 7/9th time signature, it's just a really, really bizarre timing. And just so I don't get my ass sued, that little speech that Sawako makes at the beginning of the chapter about metal was taken from the Dungeons and Dragons book _Complete Arcane_, it's the description for the _Seeker of the Song _prestige class.

So I hope this was a half-way decent end to a half-way decent story. I appreciate every one taking time off of playing video games, watching anime, and lurking 4chan to read this. Because I can guarantee all of you do at least two of those. Anyways, I hope some of you will continue to read my future works, whatever they may be. I think for my next story, I'll attempt something a little more serious. Or maybe even a Mitsu fic, even if it's been done to hell already.


End file.
